Antediluvian Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An unnerving metaphysical suspense story from screenwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic evil when unknowns become conduits in a hellish experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense portrayal of overcoming and old world terror that will redefine scare flicks this October. Visualized by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic cinema piece follows five figures who arise stuck in a secluded wooden structure under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Get ready to be captivated by a motion picture presentation that unites gut-punch terror with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the presences no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This represents the deepest element of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the conflict becomes a intense conflict between moral forces.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five teens find themselves confined under the dark control and haunting of a unknown female figure. As the group becomes defenseless to reject her curse, severed and tracked by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are compelled to endure their soulful dreads while the clock coldly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and bonds implode, requiring each cast member to reconsider their existence and the principle of free will itself. The danger climb with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that marries mystical fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract instinctual horror, an threat older than civilization itself, emerging via soul-level flaws, and dealing with a being that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something beneath mortal despair. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers around the globe can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Experience this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, production news, and alerts from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. lineup braids together old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Across grit-forward survival fare saturated with scriptural legend and extending to legacy revivals and focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified and precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, concurrently OTT services load up the fall with new perspectives plus scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is carried on the carry from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by 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 should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in 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, with Francis Lawrence directing, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

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

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: 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 will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The upcoming Horror year to come: installments, non-franchise titles, alongside A jammed Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek: The new genre slate crams right away with a January logjam, and then flows through the warm months, and well into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, original angles, and shrewd alternatives. Studios and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that turn horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has established itself as the surest option in studio calendars, a segment that can expand when it resonates and still safeguard the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that responsibly budgeted entries can command the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The momentum pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for a variety of tones, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a calendar that shows rare alignment across companies, with purposeful groupings, a combination of established brands and original hooks, and a recommitted priority on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium digital and streaming.

Executives say the category now works like a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for creative and reels, and outperform with ticket buyers that line up on early shows and maintain momentum through the next weekend if the feature connects. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern demonstrates conviction in that engine. The slate begins with a crowded January block, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall corridor that pushes into late October and into the next week. The layout also illustrates the deeper integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another sequel. They are setting up threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new tone or a star attachment that bridges a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring hands-on technique, special makeup and specific settings. That convergence yields 2026 a robust balance of known notes and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket projects 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 lead, positioning the film as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a throwback-friendly angle without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever leads the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and micro spots that mixes attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are presented as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has shown that a gritty, practical-effects forward method can feel deluxe on a efficient spend. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach 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 well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can lift premium screens and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror built on immersive craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that maximizes both launch urgency and trial spikes in the tail. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two brand 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 mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first have a peek at this web-site plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception supports. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The concern, as ever, is fatigue. The operating solution is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not foreclose a parallel release from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror forecast a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in con floor moments and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is packed. 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 larger brand plays. The month caps 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 legit, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 closed-door haunting chiller that mediates the fear via a youth’s wavering point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-supported and name-above-title eerie 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 send-up revival that pokes at present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated 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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family snared by ancient dread. Rating: forthcoming. 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: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 cost-efficient 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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.