Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

One eerie supernatural suspense film from storyteller / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an ancient nightmare when strangers become tools in a dark ordeal. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of living through and ancient evil that will resculpt the horror genre this fall. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive feature follows five characters who are stirred imprisoned in a isolated shack under the malevolent command of Kyra, a female lead inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be gripped by a audio-visual spectacle that integrates visceral dread with timeless legends, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the beings no longer originate from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the most terrifying shade of the group. The result is a relentless psychological battle where the drama becomes a brutal conflict between heaven and hell.


In a remote terrain, five characters find themselves sealed under the fiendish dominion and overtake of a uncanny spirit. As the companions becomes helpless to combat her will, isolated and chased by powers unfathomable, they are cornered to deal with their greatest panics while the doomsday meter brutally ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and bonds disintegrate, compelling each cast member to rethink their true nature and the concept of decision-making itself. The hazard surge with every instant, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that weaves together mystical fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon elemental fright, an entity that existed before mankind, filtering through inner turmoil, and dealing with a being that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that flip is terrifying because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure streamers in all regions can engage with this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, bringing the film to international horror buffs.


Tune in for this bone-rattling exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, filmmaker commentary, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans domestic schedule interlaces primeval-possession lore, festival-born jolts, paired with returning-series thunder

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories steeped in old testament echoes and including returning series as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most complex along with strategic year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios hold down the year via recognizable brands, at the same time platform operators pack the fall with discovery plays paired with old-world menace. On the festival side, the artisan tier is riding the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a statement play: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner Bros. launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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 overstuffed canon. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming fright cycle: installments, standalone ideas, And A Crowded Calendar designed for frights

Dek: The upcoming genre calendar packs immediately with a January crush, subsequently spreads through June and July, and continuing into the holidays, balancing series momentum, original angles, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that transform these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the bankable release in studio lineups, a pillar that can lift when it catches and still hedge the downside when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that modestly budgeted pictures can command the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets demonstrated there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a balance of household franchises and original hooks, and a tightened commitment on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Marketers add the horror lane now behaves like a wildcard on the slate. Horror can premiere on numerous frames, generate a sharp concept for spots and vertical videos, and overperform with crowds that turn out on Thursday nights and stick through the subsequent weekend if the movie satisfies. Emerging from a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration exhibits certainty in that approach. The calendar commences with a front-loaded January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall corridor that reaches into holiday-adjacent weekends and into November. The arrangement also shows the continuing integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and grow at the timely point.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across linked properties and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another chapter. They are moving to present lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title treatment that flags a new vibe or a casting pivot that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind check over here the top original plays are leaning into practical craft, real effects and grounded locations. That combination provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach signals a legacy-leaning approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a harmful mate. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew creepy live activations and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to dominate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, on-set effects led method can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is positioning as a reimagined 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 well-defined brief to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 continues Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and period speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both initial urgency and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using curated hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to lengthen the navigate to this website tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to launch and making event-like debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French sensibility from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a dual release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, auteur craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 lensed sequentially, allows marketing to interlace chapters through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the upcoming entries signal a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that Young & Cursed leans on mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. 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 big-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. 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 sorrowing man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first 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 abrasive boss push to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic swivels and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating 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 household haunting premise that frames the panic through a minor’s wavering subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that pokes at today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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 strong PLF footprints without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound, and imagery 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 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.