Ancient Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

This blood-curdling spiritual horror tale from creator / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an ancient entity when guests become proxies in a satanic ceremony. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful saga of continuance and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize horror this fall. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic fearfest follows five strangers who wake up confined in a secluded cottage under the hostile influence of Kyra, a troubled woman controlled by a ancient sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be immersed by a visual outing that intertwines visceral dread with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a well-established narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the presences no longer form from a different plane, but rather inside them. This illustrates the most sinister facet of the victims. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the story becomes a perpetual tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a desolate woodland, five adults find themselves stuck under the fiendish rule and control of a obscure person. As the survivors becomes submissive to evade her control, isolated and hunted by powers beyond reason, they are made to endure their inner demons while the final hour unceasingly strikes toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and relationships break, coercing each soul to rethink their being and the notion of conscious will itself. The intensity escalate with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract primal fear, an threat older than civilization itself, emerging via our fears, and dealing with a presence that redefines identity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households globally can dive into this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its intro video, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Join this haunted voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For previews, making-of footage, and reveals directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





American horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar Mixes archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with ancient scripture all the way to legacy revivals together with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted plus deliberate year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios hold down the year by way of signature titles, while platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs and old-world menace. In the indie lane, independent banners is catching the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale within its surest horror brand: 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. Even with a familiar chassis, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Authored 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays 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: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. 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
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The approaching Horror lineup: entries, universe starters, as well as A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The incoming horror calendar crowds in short order with a January bottleneck, subsequently stretches through summer, and straight through the holidays, marrying marquee clout, original angles, and tactical offsets. The major players are prioritizing smart costs, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that position horror entries into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has turned into the predictable counterweight in studio calendars, a segment that can break out when it clicks and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year proved to executives that lean-budget chillers can command social chatter, 2024 continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The carry rolled into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers confirmed there is capacity for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to original features that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened stance on exclusive windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now behaves like a swing piece on the rollout map. The genre can debut on almost any weekend, create a sharp concept for teasers and short-form placements, and outstrip with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and stay strong through the next weekend if the feature lands. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a crowded January lineup, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a autumn stretch that flows toward the fright window and into November. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and widen at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared universes and storied titles. Major shops are not just making another return. They are looking to package connection with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that announces a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next film to a early run. At the same time, the directors behind the most watched originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and grounded locations. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of comfort and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a fan-service aware framework without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run rooted in signature symbols, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that shifts into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo strange in-person beats and micro spots that melds romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are branded as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-effects forward treatment can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around canon, and creature design, elements that can drive premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, spooky hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival snaps, dating horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has indicated interest to take on select projects with award winners or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 corridor with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern sound and cinematography. 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 indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is his comment is here ready, then working the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles 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, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the deal build is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from thriving when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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 filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without lulls.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft rooms behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature craft and set design, which match well with convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into 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 delivers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 household haunting tale that toys with the dread of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. 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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 press those advantages. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 banquet, 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 goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, 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, acoustics, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.