Age-old Terror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling thriller, streaming October 2025 across global platforms

A terrifying mystic fear-driven tale from writer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primeval dread when strangers become tools in a fiendish maze. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of continuance and prehistoric entity that will transform genre cinema this fall. Realized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic feature follows five characters who find themselves confined in a secluded cottage under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a tormented girl occupied by a timeless biblical force. Prepare to be gripped by a visual journey that harmonizes instinctive fear with legendary tales, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical element in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the monsters no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather from within. This represents the grimmest version of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a unyielding contest between right and wrong.


In a barren landscape, five friends find themselves cornered under the ghastly rule and domination of a unidentified entity. As the team becomes paralyzed to deny her dominion, cut off and attacked by creatures impossible to understand, they are driven to confront their raw vulnerabilities while the moments mercilessly pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and associations splinter, demanding each individual to scrutinize their identity and the idea of free will itself. The consequences magnify with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that connects spiritual fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke deep fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, operating within fragile psyche, and wrestling with a evil that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something unfamiliar to reason. She is unseeing until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is eerie because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers anywhere can be part of this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has collected over notable views.


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


Join this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Stream *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across media channels and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate fuses biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside tentpole growls

Ranging from life-or-death fear inspired by legendary theology to legacy revivals and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted plus carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, even as streaming platforms prime the fall with fresh voices in concert with ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is buoyed by the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, which means 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Helmed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a tight space body horror vignette fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, 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.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

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.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

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

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 forthcoming 2026 Horror release year: returning titles, original films, as well as A jammed Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The emerging terror season crams up front with a January pile-up, before it rolls through June and July, and running into the December corridor, blending franchise firepower, untold stories, and calculated counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are relying on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has become the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it connects and still safeguard the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to leaders that cost-conscious shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 kept energy high with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays signaled there is demand for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and novel angles, and a recommitted emphasis on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the calendar. The genre can launch on nearly any frame, yield a sharp concept for creative and social clips, and over-index with patrons that turn out on first-look nights and stick through the next pass if the release connects. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence reflects comfort in that model. The calendar opens with a busy January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that pushes into Halloween and into the next week. The schedule also includes the greater integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just rolling another return. They are seeking to position lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that signals a tonal shift or a talent selection that threads a new entry to a early run. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That alloy gives 2026 a vital pairing of trust and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a nostalgia-forward campaign without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave stacked with iconic art, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate mass reach through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s team likely to renew viral uncanny stunts and short reels that melds romance and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are treated as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The Source franchise has long shown that a tactile, on-set effects led style can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio 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 reappears in what the studio is billing as a reimagined 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 explicit mandate to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror defined by minute detail and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan 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 secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-first horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden 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 in concert, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a dual release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, auteur craft horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh 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 lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind this slate telegraph a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first 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 abrasive boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that explores the fright of a child’s tricky interpretations. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted paranormal 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 genre lampoon that teases present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in old terrors. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. movies Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.