Age-old Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A chilling spectral terror film from narrative craftsman / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient curse when unrelated individuals become victims in a malevolent experiment. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking portrayal of endurance and mythic evil that will redefine the horror genre this October. Visualized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive motion picture follows five people who emerge stuck in a unreachable cottage under the oppressive dominion of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Be prepared to be gripped by a screen-based display that melds bodily fright with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is reversed when the entities no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This symbolizes the grimmest facet of the victims. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the intensity becomes a ongoing conflict between innocence and sin.


In a forsaken landscape, five friends find themselves marooned under the malicious grip and possession of a enigmatic female presence. As the group becomes submissive to break her influence, disconnected and attacked by entities unimaginable, they are required to reckon with their darkest emotions while the time without pity edges forward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear builds and alliances crack, demanding each character to rethink their identity and the idea of personal agency itself. The stakes surge with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that merges otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into primitive panic, an darkness from prehistory, operating within mental cracks, and confronting a entity that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is insensitive until the invasion happens, and that flip is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that fans anywhere can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these nightmarish insights about the mind.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle American release plan weaves old-world possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with tentpole growls

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with biblical myth through to brand-name continuations paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most complex in tandem with strategic year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, concurrently platform operators saturate the fall with new perspectives as well as ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is propelled by the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

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

Universal Pictures opens the year with a confident swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fright lineup: brand plays, fresh concepts, plus A stacked Calendar designed for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new genre year crowds right away with a January cluster, from there extends through summer corridors, and continuing into the year-end corridor, combining name recognition, untold stories, and savvy counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are prioritizing cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that transform these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has grown into the surest swing in studio slates, a genre that can expand when it hits and still limit the exposure when it falls short. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that efficiently budgeted horror vehicles can own the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The run moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects made clear there is room for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that perform internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with intentional bunching, a harmony of familiar brands and new concepts, and a revived stance on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now acts as a flex slot on the schedule. Horror can debut on virtually any date, furnish a clear pitch for previews and reels, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on Thursday previews and continue through the second weekend if the offering connects. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that engine. The slate opens with a front-loaded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and afterwards. The map also underscores the tightening integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and grow at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is series management across connected story worlds and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just making another return. They are setting up story carry-over with a occasion, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are returning to practical craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a lively combination of trust and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a memory-charged approach without covering again the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave built on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is straightforward, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that interlaces devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent 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 activate 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a tight budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror shock that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 directive to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build artifacts around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can amplify large-format demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The company has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that optimizes both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video combines outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, seasonal hubs, and collection rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, finalizing horror entries tight to release and coalescing around go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate 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 sell is tight: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to expand. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-flavored turn from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects supply the 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is assuring enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps frame the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that held distribution windows did not prevent a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, creates space for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror suggest a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s artificial companion escalates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss claw to survive on a remote island as the control balance upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering inner lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-scale and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

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 reboot that satirizes today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, 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 come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The underdog chase 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver have a peek here the first left-field winner 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, 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 leans brutal, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.