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

A chilling occult shockfest from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless nightmare when strangers become conduits in a demonic ceremony. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of struggle and forgotten curse that will reconstruct terror storytelling this October. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic tale follows five people who snap to ensnared in a cut-off shack under the unfriendly manipulation of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a biblical-era ancient fiend. Get ready to be seized by a big screen outing that harmonizes bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a classic foundation in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the malevolences no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather deep within. This symbolizes the most primal dimension of all involved. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the drama becomes a brutal fight between good and evil.


In a forsaken woodland, five souls find themselves contained under the evil force and inhabitation of a uncanny person. As the youths becomes unable to break her control, stranded and attacked by evils inconceivable, they are pushed to face their worst nightmares while the final hour brutally counts down toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety swells and teams dissolve, urging each figure to doubt their values and the idea of decision-making itself. The tension intensify with every instant, delivering a terror ride that intertwines paranormal dread with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract ancestral fear, an force beyond recorded history, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and examining a evil that strips down our being when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra called for internalizing something beneath mortal despair. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure users around the globe can face this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Witness this visceral exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these spiritual awakenings about existence.


For cast commentary, production insights, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar melds ancient-possession motifs, Indie Shockers, plus series shake-ups

Kicking off with survival horror suffused with mythic scripture through to legacy revivals alongside keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated together with deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners stabilize the year with familiar IP, while OTT services flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is propelled by the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are methodical, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

At summer’s close, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops 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.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

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

Streamers grow fangs
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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 must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next chiller calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, And A brimming Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The incoming horror season clusters up front with a January pile-up, following that extends through summer corridors, and far into the December corridor, blending IP strength, creative pitches, and well-timed alternatives. Studios with streamers are doubling down on mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that turn horror entries into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has proven to be the sturdy play in programming grids, a corner that can spike when it breaks through and still buffer the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and surprise hits. The head of steam fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a lineup that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and fresh ideas, and a recommitted eye on exhibition windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now functions as a wildcard on the slate. The genre can premiere on nearly any frame, furnish a sharp concept for trailers and shorts, and outstrip with demo groups that arrive on previews Thursday and return through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration demonstrates comfort in that equation. The year opens with a heavy January corridor, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that carries into the Halloween corridor and into November. The calendar also spotlights the ongoing integration of indie arms and subscription services that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and move wide at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Major shops are not just turning out another continuation. They are aiming to frame brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a refreshed voice or a casting choice that binds a new installment to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the top original plays are embracing tactile craft, on-set effects and specific settings. That fusion gives 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount fires first with two spotlight moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged angle without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that mutates into a deadly partner. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that blurs love and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates 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 dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a in-your-face, practical-first method can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that centers overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart 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 explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around canon, and creature work, elements that can fuel PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival snaps, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, upgraded for modern sound 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 announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception prompts. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Series vs standalone

By skew, 2026 leans in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options have a peek here and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that leans on creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded 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 performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season 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 steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion turns 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a young child’s shifting perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new family bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. my company Production: proceeding. 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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 disciplined-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 work 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, 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 tempo and variety. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.