Antediluvian Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across major streaming services

This frightening mystic terror film from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old terror when passersby become vehicles in a fiendish ritual. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of continuance and primordial malevolence that will alter horror this fall. Created by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy cinema piece follows five unknowns who find themselves ensnared in a unreachable shack under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a young woman possessed by a prehistoric biblical force. Ready yourself to be shaken by a cinematic spectacle that blends deep-seated panic with spiritual backstory, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a classic trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the spirits no longer originate from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This embodies the darkest part of each of them. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the events becomes a intense confrontation between light and darkness.


In a isolated wild, five teens find themselves confined under the sinister sway and grasp of a obscure female figure. As the team becomes submissive to deny her control, left alone and attacked by powers unnamable, they are confronted to endure their worst nightmares while the moments ruthlessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension grows and alliances shatter, coercing each individual to evaluate their existence and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The consequences magnify with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract raw dread, an darkness from prehistory, influencing inner turmoil, and highlighting a spirit that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the invasion happens, and that conversion is shocking because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be released for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers across the world can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this gripping fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For director insights, set experiences, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate blends biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, paired with legacy-brand quakes

From survival horror suffused with ancient scripture as well as installment follow-ups together with acutely observed indies, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified as well as precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. major banners lay down anchors using marquee IP, even as digital services front-load the fall with debut heat and primordial unease. At the same time, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp opens the year with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite 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. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures drops the final chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fright release year: next chapters, standalone ideas, in tandem with A jammed Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar packs in short order with a January bottleneck, then carries through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, weaving brand equity, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. Studios with streamers are committing to tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the bankable tool in studio calendars, a space that can accelerate when it lands and still hedge the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to top brass that cost-conscious shockers can own cultural conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The upswing flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers showed there is demand for different modes, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a mix of known properties and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Marketers add the category now behaves like a versatile piece on the release plan. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with fans that appear on previews Thursday and sustain through the second frame if the offering works. Post a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping underscores certainty in that approach. The year opens with a weighty January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The schedule also spotlights the ongoing integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the precise moment.

An added macro current is legacy care across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just rolling another next film. They are moving to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that announces a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, practical effects and grounded locations. That convergence hands 2026 a strong blend of home base and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two marquee releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Count on a promo wave fueled by iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects 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 draw the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick pivots to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is straightforward, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that shifts into a killer companion. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interlaces love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a public title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is billing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by rigorous craft and language, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate land on copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that optimizes both launch urgency and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using featured rows, horror hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a selective basis. The platform has been willing to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track 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 straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, reimagined 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. Cineverse has announced a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps illuminate the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they shift POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films hint at a continued turn 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 matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. 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 loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 tough boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the pecking order swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 setup that interrogates the horror of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household lashed to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. 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 see here SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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 exploit those windows. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, 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.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.