Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One blood-curdling paranormal suspense film from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an primordial terror when passersby become subjects in a supernatural conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful episode of survival and old world terror that will remodel scare flicks this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy screenplay follows five people who snap to caught in a hidden cottage under the sinister grip of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be hooked by a audio-visual venture that blends instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a time-honored tradition in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is challenged when the presences no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather internally. This symbolizes the most terrifying facet of every character. The result is a emotionally raw emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a unforgiving confrontation between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken terrain, five figures find themselves isolated under the evil sway and infestation of a mysterious entity. As the cast becomes paralyzed to combat her influence, abandoned and followed by evils beyond reason, they are confronted to face their emotional phantoms while the final hour relentlessly moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and alliances dissolve, requiring each survivor to reflect on their identity and the nature of independent thought itself. The danger surge with every tick, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects supernatural terror with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into raw dread, an malevolence older than civilization itself, feeding on fragile psyche, and confronting a curse that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that transition is bone-chilling because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing households worldwide can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these chilling revelations about the mind.


For featurettes, special features, and news straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. lineup weaves myth-forward possession, underground frights, plus brand-name tremors

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from old testament echoes and onward to IP renewals in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most complex paired with deliberate year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, while platform operators flood the fall with debut heat as well as archetypal fear. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is riding the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
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 surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming terror season: Sequels, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The emerging terror season loads early with a January wave, thereafter unfolds through the warm months, and well into the late-year period, blending brand heft, creative pitches, and tactical counterweight. Studios with streamers are betting on cost discipline, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that frame horror entries into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has solidified as the bankable release in studio lineups, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still protect the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that cost-conscious shockers can dominate audience talk, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and stealth successes. The tailwind pushed into 2025, where resurrections and festival-grade titles proved there is an opening for diverse approaches, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with intentional bunching, a blend of familiar brands and untested plays, and a refocused strategy on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and home platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now slots in as a flex slot on the programming map. The genre can kick off on many corridors, furnish a easy sell for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and lead with viewers that line up on advance nights and stay strong through the next pass if the release connects. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores faith in that approach. The slate commences with a heavy January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a October build that extends to late October and beyond. The program also includes the increasing integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can build gradually, grow buzz, and roll out at the right moment.

A reinforcing pattern is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and storied titles. Studio teams are not just making another sequel. They are working to present brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that announces a refreshed voice or a talent selection that binds a latest entry to a heyday. At the simultaneously, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are championing practical craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence hands 2026 a strong blend of comfort and shock, which is what works overseas.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a nostalgia-forward campaign without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout centered on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that evolves into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to reprise eerie street stunts and micro spots that melds devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to fill 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy treatment can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror surge that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

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 primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with global originals and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 track with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, 2026 leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not foreclose a day-date try from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 in tandem, permits marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror point to a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. 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 sound. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic horror Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss struggle to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 household haunting premise that refracts terror through a little one’s uneven POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and toplined paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward pure survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 period language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, and camera work 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, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the scares sell the seats.