Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on top streamers

A spine-tingling metaphysical thriller from writer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an age-old curse when guests become victims in a diabolical conflict. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of staying alive and ancient evil that will transform horror this autumn. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy suspense flick follows five unknowns who come to confined in a off-grid dwelling under the ominous influence of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a time-worn holy text monster. Prepare to be immersed by a theatrical ride that fuses instinctive fear with ancient myths, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a classic theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the spirits no longer originate from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This marks the deepest facet of all involved. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the conflict becomes a unforgiving face-off between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate outland, five figures find themselves stuck under the unholy force and infestation of a unidentified spirit. As the team becomes submissive to withstand her control, isolated and followed by evils ungraspable, they are thrust to stand before their deepest fears while the hours ruthlessly edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and partnerships shatter, forcing each survivor to doubt their true nature and the idea of personal agency itself. The tension accelerate with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that merges otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to dig into deep fear, an malevolence beyond time, manipulating soul-level flaws, and navigating a darkness that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the evil takes hold, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering customers from coast to coast can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to international horror buffs.


Be sure to catch this gripping descent into hell. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these nightmarish insights about the soul.


For director insights, on-set glimpses, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. rollouts blends biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in biblical myth all the way to franchise returns together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, simultaneously OTT services crowd the fall with new voices together with primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, indie storytellers is surfing the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: throwback unease, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is virtually assured for fall.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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 is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, under Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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.

Trends to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror reemerges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming scare lineup: entries, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A jammed Calendar Built For chills

Dek The fresh scare slate packs immediately with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through the warm months, and deep into the winter holidays, mixing legacy muscle, creative pitches, and shrewd counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a corner that can accelerate when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reconfirmed for leaders that lean-budget shockers can galvanize pop culture, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and elevated films proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a re-energized commitment on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on virtually any date, provide a sharp concept for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outpace with fans that arrive on preview nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern telegraphs confidence in that engine. The year starts with a front-loaded January corridor, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a autumn stretch that extends to the fright window and beyond. The grid also spotlights the greater integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and expand at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across linked properties and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another entry. They are working to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a title presentation that announces a tonal shift or a talent selection that connects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring practical craft, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That fusion gives 2026 a robust balance Source of recognition and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a relay and a back-to-basics character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a legacy-leaning framework without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive anchored in brand visuals, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise odd public stunts and micro spots that interweaves companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects execution can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that maximizes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, holding a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can drive PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The Universal horror run transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that enhances both premiere heat and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with global originals and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to buy select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an promising marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Recent comps illuminate the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not deter a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind the year’s horror indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month winds down 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 mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting story that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering personal vantage. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that targets modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. 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 era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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 search for sleepers 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.