Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A eerie occult fear-driven tale from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an long-buried dread when foreigners become victims in a cursed contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of living through and forgotten curse that will reshape the fear genre this October. Helmed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy suspense flick follows five strangers who regain consciousness isolated in a isolated dwelling under the malignant sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a timeless sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be ensnared by a cinematic display that combines intense horror with ancient myths, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is twisted when the forces no longer manifest externally, but rather from their core. This embodies the most sinister corner of every character. The result is a intense emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a relentless confrontation between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken terrain, five teens find themselves contained under the malicious dominion and infestation of a shadowy female presence. As the survivors becomes incapable to evade her influence, exiled and chased by unknowns unimaginable, they are made to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the time coldly winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension deepens and relationships splinter, urging each character to doubt their self and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The tension grow with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that blends unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into raw dread, an evil that predates humanity, working through our fears, and navigating a curse that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that fans globally can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Make sure to see this cinematic descent into darkness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these nightmarish insights about free will.


For featurettes, production news, and updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate braids together old-world possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside tentpole growls

Spanning endurance-driven terror inspired by ancient scripture and onward to installment follow-ups in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the most complex along with strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors bookend the months with established lines, even as premium streamers flood the fall with discovery plays paired with old-world menace. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is propelled by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as narrative engine, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable led by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed 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. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. 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 play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new chiller slate: returning titles, Originals, as well as A hectic Calendar tailored for Scares

Dek: The fresh genre cycle packs in short order with a January glut, before it runs through midyear, and running into the holidays, balancing brand heft, new concepts, and data-minded release strategy. Distributors with platforms are relying on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that pivot these films into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has shown itself to be the steady play in studio lineups, a genre that can scale when it breaks through and still buffer the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year demonstrated to buyers that efficiently budgeted fright engines can own mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and sleeper breakouts. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the field, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of marquee IP and novel angles, and a tightened attention on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and digital services.

Executives say the space now functions as a plug-and-play option on the grid. Horror can open on nearly any frame, furnish a easy sell for marketing and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with patrons that turn out on early shows and return through the next weekend if the film delivers. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits faith in that engine. The year rolls out with a weighty January block, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a fall run that pushes into late October and past Halloween. The schedule also illustrates the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and expand at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across unified worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just producing another follow-up. They are trying to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that signals a re-angled tone or a talent selection that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the same time, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are embracing in-camera technique, special makeup and specific settings. That alloy provides 2026 a solid mix of assurance and surprise, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two headline moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a relay and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a legacy-leaning campaign without recycling the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign built on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a counterweight in summer, this one will drive four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick adjustments to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three clear projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is simple, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that blurs romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as director events, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward mix can feel premium on a controlled budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build assets around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the tail. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival deals, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of precision releases and quick platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday frame to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The challenge, as ever, is overexposure. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind this slate telegraph a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, 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 drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta inflection that re-centers the original this content lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday 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 proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 run into a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 struggle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that interrogates the fright of a child’s uncertain point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly 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 parody reboot that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan linked to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math useful reference also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, making room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will compete across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for 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 use those gaps. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.