Age-old Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A unnerving supernatural scare-fest from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval terror when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a satanic ordeal. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense journey of living through and age-old darkness that will resculpt the fear genre this cool-weather season. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive fearfest follows five figures who emerge sealed in a off-grid hideaway under the malignant grip of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a legendary religious nightmare. Steel yourself to be absorbed by a visual spectacle that melds soul-chilling terror with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the malevolences no longer emerge from external sources, but rather from their core. This mirrors the haunting side of the group. The result is a bone-chilling identity crisis where the suspense becomes a merciless struggle between moral forces.


In a remote terrain, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the malicious rule and possession of a shadowy entity. As the cast becomes incapable to fight her control, abandoned and stalked by creatures unnamable, they are forced to face their darkest emotions while the hours unforgivingly ticks toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread escalates and links splinter, pressuring each protagonist to reflect on their true nature and the nature of autonomy itself. The cost grow with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract core terror, an power born of forgotten ages, manipulating our fears, and questioning a spirit that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the takeover begins, and that transition is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that users around the globe can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Experience this haunted path of possession. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to survive these haunting secrets about the human condition.


For director insights, director cuts, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official digital haunt.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar braids together archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, set against Franchise Rumbles

From grit-forward survival fare rooted in legendary theology and including franchise returns together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the richest in tandem with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners lay down anchors with familiar IP, even as subscription platforms prime the fall with debut heat set against mythic dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is riding the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

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 aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 Horror year to come: entries, non-franchise titles, paired with A brimming Calendar aimed at nightmares

Dek: The new horror year loads early with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through the mid-year, and far into the holiday frame, weaving name recognition, fresh ideas, and data-minded calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are embracing cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that convert genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the bankable play in release strategies, a category that can accelerate when it resonates and still mitigate the risk when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught buyers that disciplined-budget scare machines can galvanize cultural conversation, 2024 continued the surge with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The trend pushed into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects highlighted there is a market for different modes, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a programming that appears tightly organized across the field, with mapped-out bands, a blend of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a re-energized priority on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and subscription services.

Schedulers say the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the release plan. The genre can kick off on many corridors, yield a clear pitch for spots and platform-native cuts, and outpace with ticket buyers that respond on first-look nights and stay strong through the next pass if the title connects. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup indicates confidence in that logic. The slate launches with a front-loaded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into the fright window and afterwards. The gridline also underscores the continuing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just mounting another continuation. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are returning to physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That blend affords the 2026 slate a healthy mix of home base and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a classic-referencing treatment without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive stacked with signature symbols, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that mutates into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and quick hits that threads affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest this website at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel elevated on a middle budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror jolt that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium format interest and community activity.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival snaps, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a paired of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on 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 together, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not block a parallel release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and grow scope. That this website 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights tone and tension rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 heftier brand moves. The month closes 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 meaningful, but the variety of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 intelligent companion unfolds into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 family-home haunting story that routes the horror through a kid’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll 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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family caught in returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 debuts. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.