Antediluvian Horror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across major streaming services

An blood-curdling occult shockfest from creator / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic entity when guests become tokens in a dark ceremony. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of continuance and forgotten curse that will alter horror this October. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody motion picture follows five individuals who suddenly rise imprisoned in a off-grid hideaway under the hostile power of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a time-worn religious nightmare. Be prepared to be immersed by a big screen adventure that intertwines gut-punch terror with ancient myths, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the monsters no longer come beyond the self, but rather from their core. This marks the most terrifying version of the victims. The result is a enthralling mind game where the events becomes a ongoing confrontation between light and darkness.


In a haunting woodland, five individuals find themselves cornered under the malicious effect and overtake of a obscure person. As the youths becomes submissive to break her grasp, exiled and stalked by evils impossible to understand, they are forced to wrestle with their emotional phantoms while the final hour mercilessly ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and friendships break, pressuring each participant to doubt their existence and the idea of free will itself. The hazard accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into elemental fright, an malevolence before modern man, feeding on fragile psyche, and confronting a force that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering viewers internationally can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has collected over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to a worldwide audience.


Join this visceral journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these haunting secrets about human nature.


For director insights, making-of footage, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. release slate blends primeval-possession lore, microbudget gut-punches, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Across survival horror suffused with near-Eastern lore and including canon extensions as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered combined with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners set cornerstones by way of signature titles, in tandem streamers saturate the fall with discovery plays set against ancient terrors. At the same time, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new terror season: brand plays, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A loaded Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The current horror season lines up up front with a January glut, and then rolls through the mid-year, and far into the holidays, weaving legacy muscle, new concepts, and calculated counterplay. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that frame these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has emerged as the surest counterweight in studio lineups, a space that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the drag when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that lean-budget fright engines can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects highlighted there is capacity for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across the field, with mapped-out bands, a balance of brand names and new concepts, and a tightened attention on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Studio leaders note the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the calendar. Horror can open on virtually any date, supply a grabby hook for creative and platform-native cuts, and outpace with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the offering pays off. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 mapping indicates trust in that approach. The slate starts with a busy January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that extends to All Hallows period and past the holiday. The program also highlights the expanded integration of specialized labels and platforms that can develop over weeks, stoke social talk, and widen at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across brand ecosystems and established properties. The companies are not just making another next film. his comment is here They are setting up ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the top original plays are returning to practical craft, practical gags and concrete locations. That pairing gives 2026 a lively combination of comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach suggests a legacy-leaning approach without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in iconic art, early character teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that unfolds into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror uncanny-valley see here stunts and micro spots that hybridizes affection and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are set up as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to take 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning treatment can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Expect a hard-R summer horror hit that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can boost premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ladder that optimizes both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using prominent placements, horror hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to acquire select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the December frame to scale. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect 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 limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Recent comps clarify the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind these films suggest a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner becomes something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss try to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that channels the fear through a youth’s volatile perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that pokes at of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family caught in older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a movies sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, 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 detail, sound, and image-making 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 rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.