Ancient Terror Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, streaming Oct 2025 on premium platforms

This terrifying occult thriller from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval entity when guests become instruments in a fiendish experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of struggle and timeless dread that will remodel the horror genre this season. Created by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic film follows five unknowns who regain consciousness stuck in a cut-off wooden structure under the menacing rule of Kyra, a haunted figure dominated by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be enthralled by a cinematic event that melds bone-deep fear with timeless legends, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a legendary narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the malevolences no longer emerge from external sources, but rather inside them. This symbolizes the malevolent facet of each of them. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a relentless confrontation between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken outland, five individuals find themselves confined under the possessive aura and grasp of a mysterious female figure. As the team becomes helpless to withstand her will, marooned and followed by unknowns inconceivable, they are obligated to face their darkest emotions while the timeline unforgivingly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and links dissolve, pressuring each cast member to question their values and the concept of liberty itself. The danger accelerate with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to evoke elemental fright, an force older than civilization itself, embedding itself in human fragility, and challenging a power that peels away humanity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was about accessing something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that pivot is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers internationally can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these fearful discoveries about our species.


For film updates, director cuts, and updates from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, set against brand-name tremors

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in primordial scripture and onward to franchise returns as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned as well as calculated campaign year of the last decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios bookend the months via recognizable brands, at the same time premium streamers prime the fall with new voices as well as archetypal fear. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp sets the tone with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. arriving mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig 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.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc led 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 toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed 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. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles 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: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, led 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 sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 genre calendar year ahead: brand plays, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A brimming Calendar aimed at shocks

Dek The new genre year stacks up front with a January pile-up, before it runs through the mid-year, and well into the year-end corridor, fusing name recognition, new concepts, and shrewd counterweight. Distributors with platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and short-form initiatives that position genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror sector has established itself as the dependable release in annual schedules, a genre that can accelerate when it hits and still safeguard the risk when it misses. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that efficiently budgeted scare machines can lead the national conversation, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The momentum fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays underscored there is a market for several lanes, from sequel tracks to original features that translate worldwide. The combined impact for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across the major shops, with purposeful groupings, a balance of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a sharpened stance on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the category now performs as a utility player on the calendar. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, provide a tight logline for marketing and platform-native cuts, and lead with viewers that line up on Thursday previews and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm underscores comfort in that model. The slate rolls out with a loaded January block, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a fall run that carries into Halloween and afterwards. The program also includes the increasing integration of specialized labels and streaming partners that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across shared universes and classic IP. Studios are not just producing another continuation. They are shaping as lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that announces a fresh attitude or a talent selection that ties a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the most anticipated originals are championing hands-on technique, practical gags and grounded locations. That blend affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of trust and surprise, which is the formula for international play.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket plays that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a check my blog handoff and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt wide buzz through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an earned moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are branded as filmmaker events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, practical-effects forward mix can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Look for a splatter summer horror rush that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both diehards and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build promo materials around canon, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that expands both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events go-lives with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count my company for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is mapping 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 sell is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the deal build is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not prevent a hybrid test from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to hold creative in the market without lulls.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued bias toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which favor booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits 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 loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that channels the fear through a kid’s uneven inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. 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 primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with his comment is here holiday date set. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 search for sleepers 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, acoustics, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.