Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An bone-chilling mystic fear-driven tale from cinematographer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient curse when foreigners become pawns in a malevolent conflict. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of staying alive and old world terror that will transform horror this October. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy tale follows five unacquainted souls who are stirred locked in a secluded cottage under the menacing sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a legendary ancient fiend. Steel yourself to be hooked by a motion picture adventure that fuses primitive horror with timeless legends, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the beings no longer form from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the malevolent dimension of the players. The result is a riveting mental war where the emotions becomes a relentless conflict between good and evil.


In a isolated outland, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the malicious rule and control of a unknown entity. As the group becomes incapacitated to evade her rule, detached and hunted by powers mind-shattering, they are forced to face their deepest fears while the final hour without pity counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and alliances implode, pushing each soul to examine their personhood and the foundation of conscious will itself. The consequences intensify with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into basic terror, an threat beyond time, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and questioning a curse that strips down our being when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving users around the globe can watch this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, exporting the fear to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this life-altering voyage through terror. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these nightmarish insights about the mind.


For bonus footage, extra content, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup fuses old-world possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Beginning with pressure-cooker survival tales rooted in primordial scripture all the way to installment follow-ups paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like the most textured paired with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with familiar IP, in tandem premium streamers front-load the fall with discovery plays set against old-world menace. On another front, independent banners is drafting behind the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using 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 each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No swollen lore. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

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 coming 2026 spook release year: returning titles, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek The brand-new horror season clusters early with a January crush, after that rolls through June and July, and far into the holidays, fusing brand equity, fresh ideas, and data-minded counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these offerings into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has proven to be the predictable tool in distribution calendars, a corner that can grow when it breaks through and still buffer the floor when it under-delivers. After 2023 demonstrated to strategy teams that mid-range pictures can command cultural conversation, the following year held pace with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The trend pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries showed there is demand for varied styles, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The aggregate for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across studios, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of known properties and new packages, and a renewed stance on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Marketers add the space now serves as a fill-in ace on the schedule. Horror can arrive on almost any weekend, supply a clean hook for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with crowds that line up on preview nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the movie fires. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that setup. The slate launches with a thick January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that extends to the fright window and into post-Halloween. The layout also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the right moment.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across shared universes and established properties. Distribution groups are not just producing another entry. They are moving to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that signals a tonal shift or a casting pivot that bridges a upcoming film to a initial period. At the very same time, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are celebrating practical craft, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That mix yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of known notes and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two prominent entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture announces a nostalgia-forward mode without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. A campaign is expected centered on heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a tiered teaser plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the have a peek here campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will pursue broad awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that mutates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to mirror eerie street stunts and brief clips that interweaves romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are treated as event films, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend allows Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a in-your-face, in-camera leaning mix can feel premium on a moderate cost. Position this as a splatter summer horror shock that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning 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 directive to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Digital strategies for 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that expands both premiere heat and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix acquired titles with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival snaps, dating horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of precision releases and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror 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 go wider if reception allows. Look for 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 as partners, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and auteur plays provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is familiar enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that maintained windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga this page showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued move toward material, news place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. Universal’s 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 moody palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes 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 formidable, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: atmospheric 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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that refracts terror through a preteen’s unsteady subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family bound to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. 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: TBD. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and primordial menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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 strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a sampler, 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 gets visceral, 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 conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, audio design, and framing 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.