Ancient Darkness Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An spine-tingling unearthly shockfest from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial nightmare when outsiders become tokens in a devilish ordeal. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense depiction of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will remodel the horror genre this autumn. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and emotionally thick thriller follows five young adults who emerge stranded in a wilderness-bound shelter under the malignant grip of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a biblical-era biblical demon. Arm yourself to be gripped by a visual adventure that harmonizes deep-seated panic with spiritual backstory, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the demons no longer come outside the characters, but rather from their core. This suggests the deepest part of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the story becomes a intense tug-of-war between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken wilderness, five individuals find themselves sealed under the ominous control and spiritual invasion of a elusive female figure. As the cast becomes paralyzed to oppose her control, left alone and chased by beings unimaginable, they are pushed to wrestle with their inner horrors while the timeline coldly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety intensifies and bonds implode, coercing each figure to evaluate their values and the notion of decision-making itself. The danger mount with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to draw upon elemental fright, an power born of forgotten ages, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and wrestling with a curse that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing audiences worldwide can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this visceral exploration of dread. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to explore these spiritual awakenings about the soul.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and social posts directly from production, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup blends ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, in parallel with tentpole growls

Beginning with survival horror suffused with legendary theology and including series comebacks alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified combined with deliberate year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios set cornerstones via recognizable brands, at the same time streamers pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with ancient terrors. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is carried on the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile 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.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage 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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 upcoming fear Year Ahead: entries, fresh concepts, in tandem with A hectic Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The upcoming genre calendar stacks from the jump with a January pile-up, before it spreads through midyear, and running into the late-year period, mixing legacy muscle, creative pitches, and strategic counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform these pictures into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a pillar that can spike when it lands and still limit the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that mid-range scare machines can command the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The energy fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is room for varied styles, from franchise continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a programming that shows rare alignment across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the slate. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, deliver a easy sell for promo reels and social clips, and outstrip with demo groups that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the title fires. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates confidence in that approach. The calendar launches with a heavy January block, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The arrangement also shows the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another next film. They are looking to package connection with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that signals a reframed mood or a casting pivot that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and distinct locales. That mix affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and freshness, which is how the films export.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a classic-referencing framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a summer alternative, this one will go after broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format allowing quick updates to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interweaves devotion and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are sold as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror blast that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that amplifies both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the late-window. Prime Video will mix acquired titles with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has helped for director-led genre 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 tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. 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 delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years illuminate the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 legit, but the tone spread affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. 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 rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent see here Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 struggle to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. 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 residential haunting piece that routes the horror through a minor’s unsteady perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true-crime obsessions. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family lashed to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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 aggressive PLF bookings 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 click site 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 underdog chase 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, 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 materiality, soundcraft, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.