Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One bone-chilling otherworldly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless nightmare when outsiders become conduits in a diabolical struggle. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing account of resilience and mythic evil that will reshape horror this season. Crafted by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic thriller follows five people who are stirred sealed in a wilderness-bound shack under the sinister influence of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a antiquated religious nightmare. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a cinematic experience that combines primitive horror with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay narrative in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is radically shifted when the beings no longer form outside the characters, but rather internally. This represents the most sinister element of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the drama becomes a perpetual fight between innocence and sin.


In a desolate natural abyss, five young people find themselves caught under the malicious grip and curse of a uncanny female presence. As the team becomes incapacitated to fight her influence, cut off and hunted by beings inconceivable, they are made to deal with their greatest panics while the final hour without pity winds toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and teams splinter, compelling each protagonist to doubt their character and the integrity of volition itself. The risk accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that marries spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke primitive panic, an force born of forgotten ages, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and examining a entity that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something more primal than sorrow. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that turn is harrowing because it is so internal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring viewers internationally can engage with this terrifying film.


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


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Experience this unforgettable fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, director cuts, and press updates from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. Slate blends archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

Moving from pressure-cooker survival tales suffused with biblical myth and extending to canon extensions set beside focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified together with blueprinted year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, in parallel platform operators load up the fall with new perspectives as well as legend-coded dread. At the same time, the art-house flank is carried on the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, which means 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Dials to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: 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 must fight for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. 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 success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 fear release year: entries, universe starters, together with A stacked Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek The emerging terror year crowds right away with a January logjam, subsequently unfolds through the warm months, and well into the winter holidays, combining legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and tactical alternatives. Distributors with platforms are betting on efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that position horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has emerged as the dependable lever in studio lineups, a genre that can surge when it catches and still hedge the downside when it does not. After 2023 showed executives that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the discourse, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and under-the-radar smashes. The energy carried into 2025, where resurrections and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for different modes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that shows rare alignment across the industry, with clear date clusters, a mix of household franchises and new pitches, and a revived eye on theatrical windows that enhance post-theatrical value on paid VOD and digital services.

Executives say the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. The genre can arrive on most weekends, supply a grabby hook for creative and shorts, and outstrip with demo groups that lean in on previews Thursday and keep coming through the week two if the picture works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 layout telegraphs assurance in that dynamic. The slate commences with a stacked January run, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while leaving room for a October build that stretches into spooky season and into November. The map also illustrates the ongoing integration of specialty arms and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and move wide at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is franchise tending across unified worlds and veteran brands. Big banners are not just rolling another sequel. They are moving to present connection with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new vibe or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the top original plays are leaning into on-set craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That combination provides the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and shock, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a memory-charged bent without repeating the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run fueled by classic imagery, first images of characters, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will build wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, tragic, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and micro spots that blurs affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are marketed as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around world-building, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror driven by minute detail and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and curated strips to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, dating horror entries near launch and turning into events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse see here is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. 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 somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on 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 hand in hand, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, 2026 tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and talent-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they pivot perspective 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind these films suggest a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that center precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is loaded. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 try to survive on a cut-off island as the hierarchy upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a little one’s wavering subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that teases present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll 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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, 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 fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty Young & Cursed platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.