Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, streaming Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A hair-raising metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten horror when guests become tools in a supernatural contest. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of staying alive and forgotten curse that will redefine fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic thriller follows five people who are stirred isolated in a wooded house under the malevolent power of Kyra, a central character occupied by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be gripped by a visual event that fuses soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the presences no longer appear from an outside force, but rather inside them. This mirrors the most sinister shade of these individuals. The result is a enthralling inner struggle where the events becomes a constant face-off between heaven and hell.


In a haunting forest, five friends find themselves contained under the ominous sway and domination of a mysterious spirit. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to resist her rule, cut off and chased by presences unfathomable, they are driven to acknowledge their soulful dreads while the time brutally draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety swells and links shatter, requiring each person to reflect on their being and the foundation of free will itself. The pressure grow with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that merges occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to uncover basic terror, an spirit from prehistory, operating within psychological breaks, and exposing a being that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing fans worldwide can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable exploration of dread. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to experience these dark realities about existence.


For previews, director cuts, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup blends ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, paired with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with mythic scripture all the way to franchise returns paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered in tandem with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. the big studios plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, concurrently OTT services flood the fall with emerging auteurs alongside legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is carried on the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

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

Universal’s distribution arm begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming terror cycle: next chapters, fresh concepts, And A loaded Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek: The fresh scare slate clusters up front with a January glut, after that spreads through June and July, and deep into the winter holidays, fusing legacy muscle, new concepts, and tactical offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that frame genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has become the dependable play in annual schedules, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still protect the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that low-to-mid budget scare machines can dominate cultural conversation, the following year extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing extended into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets confirmed there is capacity for varied styles, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that appears tightly organized across the field, with mapped-out bands, a spread of legacy names and new pitches, and a refocused stance on exclusive windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the programming map. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, create a tight logline for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with crowds that appear on advance nights and return through the second weekend if the entry hits. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout underscores faith in that playbook. The year gets underway with a thick January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a September to October window that carries into late October and into November. The layout also features the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and grow at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just producing another entry. They are moving to present brand continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a new tone or a casting choice that bridges a next entry to a vintage era. At the same time, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are embracing tactile craft, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That mix delivers the 2026 slate a smart balance of known notes and discovery, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a relay and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave built on classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will drive mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that becomes a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back creepy live activations and short reels that interweaves companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a final title to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as creative events, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can boost premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and linguistic texture, this time set against lycan legends. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival grabs, locking in horror entries toward the drop and staging as events drops with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor 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 pitch is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. 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 jointly, using targeted theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-flavored turn from a rising filmmaker. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind this slate point to a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which fit with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 credible, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Winter into spring seed 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 belonged to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 algorithmic partner grows into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 confront a warped 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the control balance flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded Source with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 dark-horse hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage 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 warrant 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 shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.