Antediluvian Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled shocker, streaming October 2025 on global platforms

An unnerving otherworldly suspense film from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient curse when newcomers become conduits in a satanic ritual. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of survival and forgotten curse that will redefine scare flicks this scare season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric thriller follows five lost souls who emerge sealed in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive power of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a antiquated sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be gripped by a big screen outing that fuses intense horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reimagined when the malevolences no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the most terrifying version of all involved. The result is a relentless mind game where the story becomes a unyielding tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a barren natural abyss, five campers find themselves cornered under the unholy force and curse of a uncanny figure. As the protagonists becomes paralyzed to withstand her power, detached and targeted by presences beyond reason, they are required to confront their inner horrors while the seconds without pity ticks toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and teams erode, forcing each cast member to scrutinize their personhood and the principle of volition itself. The risk climb with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that fuses unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to evoke primal fear, an presence older than civilization itself, channeling itself through our weaknesses, and testing a force that questions who we are when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the entity awakens, and that evolution is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers across the world can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has been viewed over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to a worldwide audience.


Make sure to see this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these haunting secrets about our species.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across social media and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus domestic schedule interlaces ancient-possession motifs, underground frights, set against tentpole growls

From survivor-centric dread saturated with ancient scripture and onward to series comebacks and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered in tandem with carefully orchestrated year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses set cornerstones with familiar IP, in tandem streaming platforms saturate the fall with emerging auteurs paired with legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is riding the kinetic energy of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: The Return of Prestige Fear

The majors are assertive. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

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 an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, 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 clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to 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 reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming fear year to come: installments, original films, in tandem with A loaded Calendar engineered for shocks

Dek The upcoming scare year crowds from the jump with a January pile-up, from there carries through midyear, and carrying into the December corridor, mixing series momentum, untold stories, and savvy alternatives. Distributors with platforms are committing to mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that position genre titles into four-quadrant talking points.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This space has solidified as the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a corner that can accelerate when it resonates and still limit the downside when it falls short. After 2023 reassured top brass that lean-budget entries can steer audience talk, 2024 maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The carry carried into 2025, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers showed there is demand for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across the field, with intentional bunching, a harmony of established brands and fresh ideas, and a refocused strategy on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on paid VOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the category now operates like a utility player on the rollout map. The genre can bow on open real estate, create a grabby hook for spots and social clips, and overperform with viewers that line up on preview nights and continue through the second frame if the movie pays off. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates belief in that dynamic. The year opens with a crowded January stretch, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and widen at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is brand strategy across unified worlds and established properties. Big banners are not just pushing another entry. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that flags a tonal shift or a casting move that threads a next film to a initial period. At the alongside this, the directors behind the most watched originals are favoring material texture, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That alloy delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two high-profile titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-focused installment. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach suggests a classic-referencing mode without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that evolves into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to revisit uncanny-valley stunts and brief clips that mixes attachment and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are set up as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel premium on a tight budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fandom activation.

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 continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed films with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The this content offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the deal build is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps contextualize the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a day-date move from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues 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 tie installments through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tease that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid heavier IP. The month finishes 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 meaningful, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 in-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a young child’s unsteady POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new family caught in returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. 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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase 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 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. 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse 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 texture, aural design, and visual design 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But Source the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.