Age-old Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 on top streamers

This spine-tingling otherworldly fear-driven tale from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an ancient force when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a diabolical experiment. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of overcoming and ancient evil that will reimagine scare flicks this October. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive story follows five teens who snap to ensnared in a far-off dwelling under the oppressive grip of Kyra, a tormented girl overtaken by a timeless biblical force. Arm yourself to be immersed by a visual display that combines instinctive fear with legendary tales, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a enduring foundation in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the fiends no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This represents the grimmest element of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the tension becomes a perpetual confrontation between righteousness and malevolence.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five young people find themselves isolated under the evil sway and domination of a unknown person. As the ensemble becomes submissive to oppose her manipulation, cut off and tormented by unknowns unimaginable, they are made to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the clock unceasingly draws closer toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and ties erode, driving each survivor to reflect on their values and the nature of autonomy itself. The stakes escalate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that marries supernatural terror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken pure dread, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and testing a entity that challenges autonomy when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing households anywhere can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to global fright lovers.


Join this life-altering exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these haunting secrets about existence.


For behind-the-scenes access, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





Current horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 U.S. release slate interlaces legend-infused possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside brand-name tremors

Across survival horror steeped in ancient scripture all the way to canon extensions in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered in tandem with strategic year for the modern era.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, as SVOD players pack the fall with unboxed visions and legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is fueled by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It lands in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Digital Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. From writer director 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 night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives 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.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. 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. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

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

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new spook lineup: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The incoming genre year lines up immediately with a January glut, subsequently carries through June and July, and well into the holidays, weaving marquee clout, original angles, and smart release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing lean spends, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that pivot the slate’s entries into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has established itself as the consistent counterweight in distribution calendars, a vertical that can expand when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded buyers that disciplined-budget pictures can shape the national conversation, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where revived properties and critical darlings proved there is a lane for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that travel well. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a programming that reads highly synchronized across companies, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of marquee IP and new concepts, and a re-energized strategy on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now operates like a flex slot on the slate. Horror can open on nearly any frame, offer a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and lead with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and return through the second frame if the feature satisfies. After a production delay era, the 2026 pattern exhibits assurance in that setup. The calendar opens with a busy January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and expand at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another installment. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a new tone or a casting move that binds a upcoming film to a early run. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing physical effects work, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That mix gives 2026 a confident blend of recognition and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a heritage-honoring angle without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive mainstream recognition through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick updates to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an machine companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that threads romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an fan moment closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are positioned as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel top-tier on a tight budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shot that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually Young & Cursed deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can lift premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a sequence that fortifies both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves acquired titles with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival wins, slotting horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 pipeline with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is direct: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that honored streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep materials circulating without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which favor con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects 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 connects 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 prickly boss push to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting narrative that leverages the terror of a child’s uncertain senses. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and star-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that skewers modern genre fads and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family caught in long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward pure survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: pending. 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 historical diction and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined 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 visual texture, sound, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York navigate to this website and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.