Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across major platforms

This unnerving spiritual thriller from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an long-buried evil when newcomers become proxies in a supernatural maze. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving journey of living through and ancient evil that will remodel scare flicks this cool-weather season. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and eerie tale follows five unacquainted souls who awaken stranded in a far-off house under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be immersed by a theatrical adventure that integrates deep-seated panic with legendary tales, coming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a classic concept in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the malevolences no longer emerge from external sources, but rather from their core. This echoes the malevolent corner of the players. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the drama becomes a constant face-off between innocence and sin.


In a haunting natural abyss, five campers find themselves isolated under the fiendish presence and domination of a unidentified character. As the cast becomes defenseless to fight her grasp, stranded and preyed upon by creatures indescribable, they are confronted to confront their worst nightmares while the seconds harrowingly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and alliances splinter, requiring each cast member to reflect on their core and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The pressure amplify with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to evoke pure dread, an power beyond time, influencing fragile psyche, and confronting a darkness that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that change is eerie because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers everywhere can engage with this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original promo, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this mind-warping descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup fuses Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from old testament echoes to returning series plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered as well as tactically planned year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, in parallel streaming platforms pack the fall with fresh voices alongside old-world menace. On another front, the artisan tier is riding the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is 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 story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: 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 With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. 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 Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. 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, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 wrestle for room. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The new fright cycle: brand plays, Originals, And A packed Calendar optimized for goosebumps

Dek: The arriving genre year loads at the outset with a January pile-up, then stretches through summer, and far into the festive period, marrying name recognition, new concepts, and tactical counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are prioritizing smart costs, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that convert genre titles into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has proven to be the most reliable option in studio lineups, a lane that can surge when it breaks through and still protect the liability when it misses. After 2023 demonstrated to executives that cost-conscious horror vehicles can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The trend extended into 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles underscored there is demand for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across studios, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of known properties and new pitches, and a sharpened focus on exhibition windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the category now serves as a schedule utility on the slate. The genre can bow on virtually any date, provide a clean hook for ad units and vertical videos, and outperform with patrons that turn out on Thursday nights and stick through the next pass if the title works. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects conviction in that playbook. The calendar launches with a loaded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and past the holiday. The program also underscores the continuing integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and roll out at the proper time.

An added macro current is series management across ongoing universes and established properties. Big banners are not just producing another installment. They are aiming to frame continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that binds a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination offers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and freshness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. Plan for a rollout centered on iconic art, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that evolves into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew eerie street stunts and snackable content that hybridizes companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are sold as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first treatment can feel big on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shock that centers international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio rolls out two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart 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 mission to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around lore, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries tight to release and staging as events arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet this page have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is steady enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years clarify the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not prevent a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and widen scale. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre signal a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which fit with convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that benefit on big speakers.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. 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 late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that filters its scares through a young child’s unreliable subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-financed and star-fronted occult chiller.

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 pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 breaks out, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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 shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, 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 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 hold talk and turnout 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 steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and cinematography 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.