Primordial Horror Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across major streaming services

One frightening supernatural suspense story from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old horror when newcomers become instruments in a cursed game. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing journey of survival and timeless dread that will remodel genre cinema this spooky time. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and atmospheric film follows five individuals who regain consciousness trapped in a hidden shack under the ominous manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Prepare to be shaken by a cinematic journey that integrates visceral dread with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the monsters no longer form from external sources, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most terrifying side of all involved. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a merciless tug-of-war between moral forces.


In a wilderness-stricken terrain, five campers find themselves trapped under the malevolent aura and infestation of a uncanny female figure. As the ensemble becomes vulnerable to deny her curse, exiled and targeted by terrors unnamable, they are cornered to stand before their core terrors while the countdown unforgivingly counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and teams break, compelling each person to evaluate their self and the integrity of volition itself. The pressure intensify with every tick, delivering a terror ride that fuses demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken ancestral fear, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, feeding on our weaknesses, and challenging a power that dismantles free will when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the curse activates, and that change is shocking because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing subscribers worldwide can engage with this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first trailer, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this life-altering spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to explore these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, director cuts, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate fuses Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, and legacy-brand quakes

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories suffused with legendary theology through to IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned plus blueprinted year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, in parallel OTT services stack the fall with fresh voices plus archetypal fear. At the same time, horror’s indie wing is drafting behind the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by 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.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a clever angle. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next terror Year Ahead: brand plays, non-franchise titles, paired with A loaded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The new scare cycle lines up from day one with a January bottleneck, after that stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holiday frame, combining name recognition, fresh ideas, and calculated offsets. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that pivot genre titles into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has emerged as the bankable move in release strategies, a category that can break out when it catches and still cushion the losses when it does not. After the 2023 year reminded studio brass that mid-range fright engines can shape audience talk, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The run pushed into 2025, where revivals and prestige plays proved there is appetite for a variety of tones, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The end result for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with intentional bunching, a blend of household franchises and new concepts, and a tightened emphasis on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the genre now operates like a flex slot on the schedule. The genre can launch on most weekends, supply a simple premise for spots and shorts, and exceed norms with fans that lean in on Thursday previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the title hits. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout reflects confidence in that equation. The year gets underway with a front-loaded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a fall cadence that pushes into spooky season and into early November. The calendar also spotlights the increasing integration of indie arms and streamers that can nurture a platform play, generate chatter, and expand at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is series management across unified worlds and legacy franchises. The companies are not just pushing another continuation. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that announces a reframed mood or a casting choice that connects a new installment to a early run. At the concurrently, the auteurs behind the marquee originals are returning to real-world builds, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That convergence offers 2026 a confident blend of home base and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two headline moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative posture signals a classic-referencing mode without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with brand visuals, early character teases, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will foreground. As a summer relief option, this one will seek broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is simple, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that unfolds into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to echo uncanny live moments and short-form creative that fuses attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a name unveil to become an attention spike closer to the early tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the imp source studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The prime October weekend allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel prestige on a efficient spend. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart 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 longtime followers and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around mythos, and monster design, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ladder that maximizes both initial urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival pickups, securing horror entries near their drops and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 runway with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has served the company well for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on marquee value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a day-date try from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to interlace chapters through cast and motif and to continue assets in field without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind this slate hint at a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which fit with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can play 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.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited previews that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that frames the panic through a little one’s unreliable POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that teases in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household bound to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 lands now

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner 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 sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can pounce on 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 stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 value-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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, 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 escalate across the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean 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 texture, audio design, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.