Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, landing October 2025 on premium platforms

This chilling spectral fright fest from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless dread when drifters become subjects in a satanic maze. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of survival and archaic horror that will resculpt horror this scare season. Directed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and immersive tale follows five people who awaken imprisoned in a isolated cabin under the malignant influence of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a antiquated Old Testament spirit. Brace yourself to be enthralled by a motion picture experience that weaves together deep-seated panic with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a long-standing fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the spirits no longer manifest outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the most hidden layer of the players. The result is a riveting inner struggle where the conflict becomes a relentless tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a remote wilderness, five friends find themselves contained under the malicious control and possession of a haunted entity. As the companions becomes unable to deny her command, exiled and tracked by evils impossible to understand, they are compelled to stand before their core terrors while the final hour unceasingly ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and bonds splinter, pressuring each protagonist to question their identity and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The hazard amplify with every passing moment, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dig into instinctual horror, an darkness that predates humanity, manipulating soul-level flaws, and dealing with a entity that erodes the self when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing subscribers internationally can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has pulled in over 100K plays.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, spreading the horror to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this life-altering descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For film updates, extra content, and announcements from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s sea change: 2025 U.S. lineup weaves old-world possession, Indie Shockers, and franchise surges

Ranging from pressure-cooker survival tales rooted in near-Eastern lore and extending to legacy revivals plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most variegated together with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, while platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs together with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is propelled by the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner lot releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite 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 is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: 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 Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

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, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps 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 reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: installments, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror season stacks from day one with a January cluster, from there extends through summer corridors, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that pivot these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has grown into the consistent tool in studio slates, a genre that can grow when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year proved to executives that efficiently budgeted fright engines can own the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where revived properties and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for varied styles, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that is strikingly coherent across players, with planned clusters, a mix of known properties and first-time concepts, and a tightened focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can open on almost any weekend, deliver a simple premise for trailers and vertical videos, and outperform with viewers that turn out on opening previews and return through the next pass if the title fires. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects comfort in that dynamic. The year rolls out with a crowded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to the fright window and past the holiday. The arrangement also highlights the greater integration of boutique distributors and streamers that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and broaden at the strategic time.

A companion trend is brand strategy across shared universes and storied titles. The companies are not just rolling another continuation. They are aiming to frame continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, on-set effects and vivid settings. That fusion yields the 2026 slate a robust balance of trust and freshness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, marketing it as both a handoff and a origin-leaning character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach points to a throwback-friendly mode without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected fueled by signature symbols, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that hybridizes longing and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are branded as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror shock that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and novices. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan events.

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 the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in immersive craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that boosts both first-week urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival deals, slotting horror entries near launch and coalescing around launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. 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 sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. 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, places Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

The last three-year set contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and grow scope. 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-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films telegraph a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that leans on grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which favor convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-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 tough boss push to survive on a remote island as the power balance reverses and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top horror cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, driven by Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that toys with the panic of a child’s shaky interpretations. Rating: forthcoming. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-financed and star-led spirit-world 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 teases modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

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

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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

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

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, lean 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 grain, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.