Antediluvian Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, bowing October 2025 across global platforms

One bone-chilling supernatural terror film from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old fear when unfamiliar people become tools in a cursed trial. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing narrative of survival and age-old darkness that will alter horror this spooky time. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic film follows five figures who awaken stuck in a off-grid hideaway under the malignant will of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a legendary sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be hooked by a screen-based event that intertwines deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary foundation in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the entities no longer come from a different plane, but rather from within. This represents the deepest corner of the group. The result is a intense mind game where the plotline becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wild, five campers find themselves sealed under the malevolent aura and haunting of a mysterious spirit. As the team becomes defenseless to withstand her dominion, isolated and preyed upon by forces mind-shattering, they are pushed to stand before their worst nightmares while the seconds mercilessly strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and associations fracture, compelling each figure to contemplate their personhood and the idea of free will itself. The risk intensify with every instant, delivering a cinematic nightmare that merges demonic fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to draw upon basic terror, an presence before modern man, operating within soul-level flaws, and navigating a darkness that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that change is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering audiences no matter where they are can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this visceral journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these dark realities about mankind.


For cast commentary, director cuts, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: 2025 across markets domestic schedule integrates myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, paired with tentpole growls

Moving from survivor-centric dread grounded in near-Eastern lore through to IP renewals in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned plus precision-timed year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Major studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, in parallel subscription platforms flood the fall with new voices plus ancient terrors. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal sets the tone with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting 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 Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
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. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear slate: next chapters, universe starters, alongside A jammed Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The brand-new genre year lines up from day one with a January crush, before it stretches through summer corridors, and continuing into the holiday frame, fusing marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into smart costs, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has solidified as the surest release in studio slates, a segment that can accelerate when it catches and still cushion the liability when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that lean-budget chillers can drive audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The run pushed into 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles confirmed there is a lane for different modes, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The result for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the field, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a refocused priority on big-screen windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and subscription services.

Insiders argue the horror lane now functions as a wildcard on the grid. The genre can launch on many corridors, provide a clean hook for teasers and platform-native cuts, and outperform with viewers that show up on opening previews and hold through the second weekend if the title hits. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan signals comfort in that model. The slate starts with a crowded January block, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while reserving space for a autumn push that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The grid also reflects the continuing integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and move wide at the inflection point.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across interlocking continuities and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are moving to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating real-world builds, practical gags and grounded locations. That pairing produces 2026 a robust balance of brand comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a relay and a DNA-forward character-driven entry. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a throwback-friendly framework without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by legacy iconography, early character teases, and a rollout cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever leads the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that mutates into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and short reels that fuses romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets 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 preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a middle budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a new take 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 sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around canon, and creature work, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on textural authenticity and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed films with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using timely promos, horror hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival deals, timing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century great post to read Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By volume, 2026 leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The practical approach is to pitch each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed 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 Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps frame the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 lensed sequentially, enables marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries signal a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which align with expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

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 meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her hard-edged boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting story that twists the terror of a child’s wobbly read. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family caught in past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 detail, audio design, and picture 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.