Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A bone-chilling spiritual thriller from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an ancient terror when passersby become tokens in a fiendish ordeal. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of survival and primeval wickedness that will reshape scare flicks this harvest season. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and shadowy fearfest follows five young adults who emerge caught in a far-off structure under the malevolent sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Arm yourself to be seized by a theatrical journey that harmonizes gut-punch terror with folklore, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reimagined when the beings no longer form from beyond, but rather inside them. This mirrors the deepest corner of every character. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the story becomes a constant tug-of-war between right and wrong.


In a bleak backcountry, five souls find themselves confined under the sinister dominion and control of a mysterious female figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to break her control, stranded and pursued by presences indescribable, they are forced to reckon with their inner demons while the final hour ruthlessly pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and alliances disintegrate, urging each cast member to doubt their true nature and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The stakes intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates occult fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to tap into basic terror, an malevolence beyond recorded history, manipulating fragile psyche, and confronting a will that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing subscribers no matter where they are can dive into this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, exporting the fear to scare fans abroad.


Avoid skipping this heart-stopping spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to experience these chilling revelations about inner darkness.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit youngandcursed.com.





Horror’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. lineup integrates old-world possession, art-house nightmares, and legacy-brand quakes

Spanning endurance-driven terror grounded in legendary theology and including installment follow-ups set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered combined with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios are anchoring the year with known properties, in tandem platform operators stack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with scriptural shivers. At the same time, the independent cohort is carried on the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Since Halloween is the prized date, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, and 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner sets the tone with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. 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 adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of 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 all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, 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 reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

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. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn overload with a 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 will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fright year to come: brand plays, universe starters, and also A brimming Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The upcoming scare slate crams in short order with a January crush, then rolls through the mid-year, and far into the holiday stretch, mixing legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that position genre releases into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a segment that can surge when it catches and still insulate the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that mid-range horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to original features that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that shows rare alignment across companies, with obvious clusters, a blend of known properties and untested plays, and a sharpened commitment on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a utility player on the grid. Horror can open on a wide range of weekends, offer a grabby hook for creative and shorts, and overperform with crowds that come out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second frame if the movie lands. Emerging from a production delay era, the 2026 rhythm underscores assurance in that dynamic. The slate gets underway with a thick January band, then leans on spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a fall cadence that extends to the fright window and past the holiday. The gridline also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and move wide at the timely point.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just mounting another sequel. They are aiming to frame lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a logo package that announces a fresh attitude or a lead change that binds a latest entry to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to in-camera technique, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That fusion yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and surprise, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two marquee moves that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a memory-charged framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave anchored in franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is simple, melancholic, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a gnarly, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Look for a splatter summer horror rush that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the great post to read spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign creative around lore, and creature effects, elements that can amplify premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins 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 driven by rigorous craft and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s slate head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that expands both debut momentum and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with global acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to drop and making event-like premieres with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track 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 appeal is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Anticipate 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 in parallel, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is steady enough to accelerate early sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date move from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and stretch the story. 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre hint at 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 matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that explode in larger rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting narrative that refracts terror through a kid’s shifting POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. 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 period language and elemental menace. Rating: TBD. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will stack 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 capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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

The stealth-hit search 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with 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 warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.