Age-old Dread emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

An bone-chilling ghostly fright fest from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an forgotten force when foreigners become pawns in a fiendish ritual. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of continuance and ancient evil that will reimagine horror this fall. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic motion picture follows five characters who emerge stuck in a isolated wooden structure under the aggressive command of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a millennia-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be enthralled by a theatrical presentation that intertwines raw fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the spirits no longer come from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the most primal facet of the group. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the narrative becomes a merciless battle between moral forces.


In a forsaken natural abyss, five figures find themselves caught under the sinister sway and grasp of a shadowy female figure. As the victims becomes paralyzed to fight her rule, isolated and targeted by beings beyond comprehension, they are thrust to face their emotional phantoms while the time without pity pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and bonds fracture, driving each participant to question their being and the principle of liberty itself. The threat accelerate with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together otherworldly suspense with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to channel deep fear, an presence that predates humanity, filtering through fragile psyche, and navigating a curse that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra asked for exploring something past sanity. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure viewers no matter where they are can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its intro video, which has attracted over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Experience this unforgettable voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to uncover these unholy truths about the psyche.


For featurettes, set experiences, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. Slate interlaces archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, together with IP aftershocks

Beginning with last-stand terror rooted in mythic scripture to franchise returns as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted and strategic year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios lay down anchors with familiar IP, at the same time premium streamers flood the fall with new voices plus legend-coded dread. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. set for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes 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 exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 approaching scare season: next chapters, Originals, together with A Crowded Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The emerging scare slate packs immediately with a January glut, before it flows through midyear, and running into the winter holidays, blending legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that position these offerings into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The genre has solidified as the steady lever in release strategies, a lane that can scale when it resonates and still buffer the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that lean-budget horror vehicles can drive social chatter, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles underscored there is demand for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across the field, with clear date clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and new pitches, and a sharpened attention on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the space now serves as a swing piece on the grid. Horror can kick off on open real estate, generate a tight logline for trailers and vertical videos, and punch above weight with demo groups that arrive on preview nights and return through the follow-up frame if the movie pays off. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup indicates conviction in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall cadence that flows toward late October and past the holiday. The arrangement also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and widen at the timely point.

A companion trend is brand strategy across shared universes and long-running brands. Distribution groups are not just mounting another sequel. They are trying to present brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that signals a fresh attitude or a star attachment that connects a new installment to a vintage era. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the top original plays are favoring hands-on technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That fusion produces 2026 a solid mix of trust and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a nostalgia-forward approach without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run centered on signature symbols, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an AI companion that escalates into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that fuses romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are marketed as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on 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 leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, practical-first approach can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror hit that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can fuel large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival additions, confirming horror entries toward the drop and framing as events go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. navigate to this website RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The concern, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. 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, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not preclude a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which align with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is full. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. 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 widowed man’s artificial companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting narrative that manipulates the dread of a child’s unreliable interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and headline-actor led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. 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. 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 pace and range. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.