Antediluvian Horror reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked shocker, launching October 2025 on top streamers

A terrifying occult horror tale from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an forgotten entity when newcomers become conduits in a satanic ritual. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of overcoming and timeless dread that will reshape the fear genre this autumn. Realized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic story follows five strangers who come to sealed in a cut-off cabin under the malignant power of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Be warned to be gripped by a screen-based journey that unites raw fear with spiritual backstory, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the fiends no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This represents the malevolent corner of the victims. The result is a harrowing mind game where the suspense becomes a unyielding fight between purity and corruption.


In a bleak landscape, five friends find themselves isolated under the unholy influence and haunting of a unknown character. As the companions becomes unable to resist her grasp, stranded and tormented by beings impossible to understand, they are made to acknowledge their deepest fears while the final hour mercilessly runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and friendships crack, compelling each figure to doubt their being and the nature of independent thought itself. The hazard amplify with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that fuses occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover pure dread, an threat older than civilization itself, manifesting in our fears, and dealing with a evil that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is innocent until the demon emerges, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households anywhere can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Join this gripping journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to uncover these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar interlaces ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Beginning with survival horror suffused with ancient scripture to franchise returns together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified and intentionally scheduled year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners lock in tentpoles with known properties, as streaming platforms prime the fall with new perspectives in concert with ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is riding the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm opens the year with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop 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. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new Horror release year: continuations, fresh concepts, paired with A packed Calendar Built For chills

Dek: The arriving genre calendar clusters at the outset with a January crush, from there carries through summer corridors, and well into the year-end corridor, marrying franchise firepower, original angles, and smart calendar placement. Studios and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that convert these films into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has solidified as the bankable swing in studio lineups, a genre that can break out when it hits and still limit the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 reconfirmed for top brass that efficiently budgeted fright engines can command pop culture, the following year kept energy high with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The trend flowed into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects underscored there is a lane for different modes, from franchise continuations to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with purposeful groupings, a balance of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a sharpened attention on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the genre now slots in as a utility player on the release plan. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, generate a simple premise for spots and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that lean in on Thursday nights and continue through the week two if the offering works. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup shows assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a September to October window that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The schedule also underscores the greater integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a tonal shift or a cast configuration that anchors a new installment to a heyday. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the top original plays are embracing practical craft, real effects and site-specific worlds. That blend provides the 2026 slate a vital pairing of assurance and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two big-ticket titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a heritage-honoring angle without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever shapes trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo strange in-person beats and short reels that melds romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a tactile, on-set effects led treatment can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is presenting as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and casuals. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around world-building, and monster design, elements that can stoke premium screens and community activity.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using timely promos, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and staging as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of precision releases and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 pipeline with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has worked well for auteur horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. 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 hand in hand, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not block a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and raise the stakes. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser 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 lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates imp source shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that centers its original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid larger brand plays. The month finishes 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 serious, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit 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 rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 battle to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s practical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production 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 residential haunting piece that channels the fear through a young child’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. 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: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan bound to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. 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 elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

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

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and visuals 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.