Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

An bone-chilling spiritual terror film from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an ancient force when guests become tools in a malevolent trial. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of resistance and timeless dread that will resculpt genre cinema this cool-weather season. Directed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and eerie feature follows five characters who wake up confined in a cut-off shack under the menacing sway of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a antiquated religious nightmare. Be warned to be gripped by a audio-visual presentation that merges instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay concept in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the presences no longer originate outside their bodies, but rather from within. This suggests the most sinister version of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a relentless struggle between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving wild, five adults find themselves confined under the dark influence and control of a unidentified female figure. As the youths becomes incapacitated to combat her manipulation, severed and tracked by unknowns mind-shattering, they are thrust to confront their inner horrors while the doomsday meter harrowingly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and teams splinter, compelling each member to contemplate their self and the idea of volition itself. The danger magnify with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into core terror, an curse that predates humanity, emerging via psychological breaks, and testing a force that redefines identity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is in denial until the demon emerges, and that pivot is shocking because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing fans across the world can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, offering the tale to international horror buffs.


Avoid skipping this visceral voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For previews, making-of footage, and announcements from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across platforms and visit the film’s website.





Current horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends Mythic Possession, underground frights, plus brand-name tremors

Running from survivor-centric dread infused with scriptural legend and stretching into franchise returns alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered as well as tactically planned year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, in tandem premium streamers front-load the fall with discovery plays together with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is fueled by the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No heavy handed lore. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

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

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 terror year to come: returning titles, fresh concepts, as well as A Crowded Calendar engineered for goosebumps

Dek The new horror cycle stacks from the jump with a January wave, and then rolls through peak season, and pushing into the holiday frame, marrying IP strength, novel approaches, and savvy counterweight. Studios and streamers are leaning into lean spends, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that pivot the slate’s entries into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has turned into the steady counterweight in annual schedules, a lane that can grow when it catches and still insulate the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year signaled to strategy teams that lean-budget scare machines can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reboots and filmmaker-prestige bets made clear there is a market for a variety of tones, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that seems notably aligned across players, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of established brands and new packages, and a re-energized eye on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Insiders argue the category now performs as a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can debut on numerous frames, yield a simple premise for ad units and social clips, and overperform with fans that lean in on preview nights and continue through the sophomore frame if the release works. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates assurance in that dynamic. The year starts with a busy January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a autumn push that stretches into spooky season and past the holiday. The arrangement also shows the greater integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the right moment.

An added macro current is brand curation across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The players are not just making another installment. They are looking to package story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a cast configuration that reconnects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the same time, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That mix hands the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a DNA-forward character study. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a roots-evoking bent without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave centered on brand visuals, first images of characters, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an digital partner that evolves into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that melds devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele projects are sold as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to maximize 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel high-value on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror blast that centers foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is framing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and general audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets 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 defined by historical precision and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that fortifies both launch urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events launches with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community 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 acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. 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 hand in hand, using small theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-aware reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Annual flow

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. 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 stiff, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s virtual companion unfolds into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic turns and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, built on Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that interrogates the panic of a child’s uncertain POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead useful reference Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate 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 win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and imagery 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, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.