Age-old Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nerve shredding chiller, rolling out October 2025 on leading streamers

An unnerving unearthly shockfest from literary architect / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an long-buried dread when foreigners become vehicles in a dark conflict. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of endurance and age-old darkness that will remodel the horror genre this scare season. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and emotionally thick film follows five people who suddenly rise confined in a wooded hideaway under the hostile grip of Kyra, a cursed figure occupied by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Be warned to be immersed by a big screen spectacle that combines bodily fright with mystical narratives, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing pillar in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the spirits no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the shadowy layer of each of them. The result is a gripping inner struggle where the plotline becomes a ongoing conflict between heaven and hell.


In a bleak outland, five friends find themselves isolated under the fiendish aura and haunting of a enigmatic woman. As the victims becomes unresisting to deny her control, isolated and attacked by creatures unfathomable, they are forced to stand before their soulful dreads while the clock without pause strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and partnerships crack, pressuring each protagonist to reflect on their values and the nature of autonomy itself. The consequences rise with every beat, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel ancestral fear, an malevolence beyond recorded history, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and questioning a darkness that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is eerie because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for streaming beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering users no matter where they are can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original clip, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Tune in for this bone-rattling ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these unholy truths about free will.


For previews, director cuts, and news from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. Slate blends primeval-possession lore, underground frights, set against franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror grounded in near-Eastern lore and including brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most textured in tandem with precision-timed year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors stabilize the year with franchise anchors, even as premium streamers stack the fall with new voices plus legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is catching the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, and 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a bold swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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 is a smart play. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. 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. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. 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

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller season: returning titles, non-franchise titles, paired with A brimming Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The upcoming terror calendar crams right away with a January cluster, and then spreads through summer corridors, and continuing into the festive period, blending brand heft, novel approaches, and shrewd calendar placement. Studios with streamers are embracing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that shape genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has solidified as the surest release in studio slates, a lane that can spike when it performs and still limit the exposure when it fails to connect. After 2023 demonstrated to top brass that modestly budgeted shockers can shape mainstream conversation, the following year sustained momentum with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The trend fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a recommitted priority on release windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for trailers and TikTok spots, and lead with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and hold through the second weekend if the offering connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm underscores certainty in that equation. The calendar starts with a thick January run, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while saving space for a fall run that reaches into spooky season and into early November. The arrangement also highlights the deeper integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and move wide at the right moment.

A companion trend is brand management across ongoing universes and legacy IP. Major shops are not just rolling another sequel. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title design that announces a reframed mood or a talent selection that reconnects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing real-world builds, real effects and vivid settings. That alloy offers 2026 a healthy mix of trust and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach indicates a nostalgia-forward bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by brand visuals, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after mainstream recognition through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever drives trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tidy, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an digital partner that mutates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a packed window, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew viral uncanny stunts and micro spots that interweaves romance and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His projects are positioned as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, practical-first style can feel big on a moderate cost. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror centered on careful craft and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with world buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in back-catalog play, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and editorial rows to stretch the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries near launch and eventizing go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded 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. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps outline the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster work and world-building, which favor expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes 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 serious, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their Young & Cursed premium pass.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s machine mate turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 demanding boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the control balance shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that teases the fright of a child’s tricky perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that needles modern genre fads and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set 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 ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. 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 period-specific language and primordial 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 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. 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 value-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 weblink 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface 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 Shapes Up Strong

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, fresh vision where it counts, 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.