Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out Oct 2025 across major streaming services

An chilling unearthly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient fear when foreigners become instruments in a cursed ritual. Available on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of survival and primordial malevolence that will revolutionize terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and eerie cinema piece follows five individuals who snap to trapped in a far-off structure under the dark command of Kyra, a mysterious girl overtaken by a legendary sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be drawn in by a screen-based presentation that merges instinctive fear with folklore, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is flipped when the beings no longer arise externally, but rather deep within. This embodies the malevolent facet of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the conflict becomes a constant push-pull between good and evil.


In a remote woodland, five characters find themselves cornered under the ominous force and possession of a elusive being. As the victims becomes powerless to reject her grasp, disconnected and attacked by entities ungraspable, they are obligated to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the seconds harrowingly ticks toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion mounts and teams implode, driving each protagonist to doubt their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The intensity escalate with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together otherworldly suspense with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel ancestral fear, an evil born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and navigating a spirit that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something deeper than fear. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that conversion is gut-wrenching because it is so raw.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving customers everywhere can engage with this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to face these unholy truths about mankind.


For featurettes, extra content, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 American release plan fuses myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, paired with tentpole growls

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare rooted in primordial scripture and stretching into legacy revivals as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted plus blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors lay down anchors using marquee IP, while streaming platforms stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus primordial unease. On another front, festival-forward creators is riding the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

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

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

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 overweight mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

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

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fear year to come: Sequels, non-franchise titles, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The upcoming terror year crowds early with a January wave, after that spreads through the warm months, and well into the holidays, braiding legacy muscle, original angles, and tactical offsets. Studios and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and influencer-ready assets that position these releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has proven to be the sturdy lever in studio lineups, a segment that can break out when it connects and still insulate the downside when it stumbles. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with clear date clusters, a harmony of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a refocused eye on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and digital services.

Planners observe the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can kick off on many corridors, create a easy sell for creative and reels, and punch above weight with crowds that show up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the release delivers. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration signals comfort in that approach. The slate starts with a loaded January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The arrangement also includes the increasing integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and expand at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just pushing another entry. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a art treatment that flags a new vibe or a talent selection that ties a upcoming film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to physical effects work, physical gags and distinct locales. That fusion hands 2026 a healthy mix of recognition and newness, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two centerpiece releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, setting it up as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a fan-service aware angle without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on classic imagery, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will emphasize. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interlaces intimacy and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele projects are treated as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives the studio 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a raw, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that amplifies both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on overall cume. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival wins, confirming horror entries near launch and turning into events releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is simple: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a ascendant talent. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even Young & Cursed when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, allows marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror suggest a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated 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 spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month concludes 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 thick, but the palette of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped 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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting tale that refracts terror through a young child’s wavering perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-grade and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Slots 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 meet the timing for 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.