Antediluvian Horror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding thriller, landing October 2025 across major streaming services

A blood-curdling spiritual horror tale from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic nightmare when unrelated individuals become tools in a fiendish struggle. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of endurance and age-old darkness that will transform genre cinema this season. Guided by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody screenplay follows five figures who regain consciousness confined in a far-off lodge under the unfriendly sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Arm yourself to be captivated by a audio-visual outing that combines instinctive fear with mystical narratives, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the presences no longer appear beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most hidden facet of the group. The result is a intense spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a brutal fight between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving wild, five adults find themselves marooned under the ominous rule and spiritual invasion of a unknown female figure. As the ensemble becomes unresisting to fight her control, detached and targeted by entities indescribable, they are compelled to deal with their raw vulnerabilities while the moments relentlessly pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and ties shatter, prompting each survivor to examine their self and the integrity of free will itself. The intensity magnify with every instant, delivering a horror experience that marries demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to channel elemental fright, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, manipulating our fears, and highlighting a power that erodes the self when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra involved tapping into something unfamiliar to reason. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so deep.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing households anywhere can watch this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has seen over six-figure audience.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For previews, filmmaker commentary, and announcements via the production team, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official digital haunt.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: the year 2025 stateside slate blends Mythic Possession, indie terrors, and series shake-ups

Across last-stand terror infused with scriptural legend as well as legacy revivals as well as incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors are anchoring the year with familiar IP, at the same time digital services load up the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is buoyed by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal Pictures kicks off the frame with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

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

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is 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 2026 terror Year Ahead: returning titles, Originals, together with A loaded Calendar Built For Scares

Dek The upcoming terror cycle lines up up front with a January logjam, thereafter rolls through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, braiding series momentum, new concepts, and calculated alternatives. Distributors with platforms are committing to smart costs, theater-first strategies, and buzz-forward plans that position these offerings into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has become the dependable tool in annual schedules, a corner that can surge when it performs and still safeguard the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded studio brass that responsibly budgeted shockers can own the discourse, the following year carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The trend translated to the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers highlighted there is capacity for a spectrum, from continued chapters to original one-offs that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across the market, with obvious clusters, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a refocused eye on box-office windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a clear pitch for trailers and vertical videos, and exceed norms with fans that turn out on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. After a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout shows certainty in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a loaded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween frame and into early November. The schedule also includes the expanded integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and widen at the strategic time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just releasing another return. They are moving to present brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a next film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are embracing physical effects work, in-camera effects and specific settings. That alloy yields 2026 a healthy mix of assurance and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a classic-referencing treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in legacy iconography, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a his comment is here AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to mirror uncanny live moments and short reels that interweaves intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele projects are framed as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work 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 heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build artifacts around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both opening-weekend urgency and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances licensed titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival deals, locking in horror entries closer to launch and staging as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc 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 appeal is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception warrants. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 leans in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years outline the plan. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. 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 two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers mood and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which favor convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. 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 intelligent companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing 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 family-home haunting narrative that routes the horror through a little one’s shifting point of view. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 flares, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family linked to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBD. 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 time-true diction and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and image-making 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, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.