Age-old Evil returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across major platforms

A chilling paranormal thriller from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried nightmare when drifters become proxies in a cursed struggle. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of resistance and primeval wickedness that will redefine genre cinema this spooky time. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric feature follows five figures who wake up caught in a isolated cabin under the aggressive command of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Arm yourself to be gripped by a narrative presentation that fuses bodily fright with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the malevolences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather deep within. This represents the haunting aspect of every character. The result is a bone-chilling inner struggle where the intensity becomes a relentless tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five teens find themselves confined under the dark aura and infestation of a haunted female figure. As the cast becomes unable to resist her manipulation, left alone and attacked by presences indescribable, they are made to deal with their emotional phantoms while the moments unceasingly winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and partnerships disintegrate, driving each member to evaluate their identity and the integrity of conscious will itself. The pressure accelerate with every minute, delivering a horror experience that marries unearthly horror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke instinctual horror, an entity beyond recorded history, feeding on fragile psyche, and highlighting a presence that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that transition is haunting because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing subscribers around the globe can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has been viewed over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this life-altering descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For previews, set experiences, and news from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the official website.





American horror’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup interlaces Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in old testament echoes and extending to brand-name continuations set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most textured combined with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year through proven series, in parallel digital services flood the fall with discovery plays and ancient terrors. On the festival side, the artisan tier is buoyed by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It looks like sharp programming. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

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

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. Think tiaras, stage blood, 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 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, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

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. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching fright slate: continuations, new stories, And A brimming Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek The emerging scare year packs early with a January glut, and then rolls through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated alternatives. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that turn horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the sturdy counterweight in release strategies, a corner that can spike when it connects and still mitigate the downside when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year proved to decision-makers that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate audience talk, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The trend rolled into 2025, where revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a combination of household franchises and new packages, and a sharpened commitment on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Marketers add the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, yield a grabby hook for spots and TikTok spots, and lead with fans that respond on Thursday previews and return through the sophomore frame if the release pays off. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan demonstrates belief in that model. The slate begins with a crowded January block, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a September to October window that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of specialized labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and scale up at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Major shops are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are working to present connection with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a tonal shift or a casting move that ties a new entry to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are championing on-set craft, real effects and grounded locations. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a strong blend of recognition and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a memory-charged campaign without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has check over here three separate pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are framed as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led execution can feel elevated on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fan-forward 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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be material 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 bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to purchase select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The watch-out, as ever, is fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a simultaneous release test from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The director conversations behind these films foreshadow a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on unease and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

How the year maps out

January is crowded. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 try to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching 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 residential haunting piece that twists the horror of a child’s mercurial senses. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-financed and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for 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 ignites, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone 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: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: underway. 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 antique diction and primal menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 low-to-mid 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 harvest those lanes. 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. 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.