Mythic Dread Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, bowing October 2025 across top streamers

An terrifying occult scare-fest from dramatist / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an long-buried horror when newcomers become vehicles in a fiendish struggle. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of living through and old world terror that will resculpt the fear genre this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick screenplay follows five individuals who are stirred sealed in a isolated shelter under the menacing rule of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Steel yourself to be enthralled by a narrative experience that melds gut-punch terror with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the entities no longer develop outside their bodies, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the most hidden facet of these individuals. The result is a relentless cognitive warzone where the plotline becomes a ongoing struggle between good and evil.


In a remote backcountry, five adults find themselves caught under the malevolent influence and control of a enigmatic apparition. As the victims becomes defenseless to deny her manipulation, detached and attacked by entities unimaginable, they are confronted to battle their darkest emotions while the countdown brutally runs out toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and partnerships splinter, driving each member to reflect on their character and the integrity of conscious will itself. The risk surge with every instant, delivering a paranormal ride that connects unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken instinctual horror, an curse born of forgotten ages, feeding on soul-level flaws, and questioning a force that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering watchers across the world can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its intro video, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this unforgettable trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this launch day to survive these unholy truths about the psyche.


For director insights, set experiences, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s inflection point: 2025 domestic schedule Mixes myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, plus tentpole growls

From life-or-death fear grounded in near-Eastern lore all the way to canon extensions and acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated combined with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios set cornerstones through proven series, while streaming platforms front-load the fall with new perspectives set against old-world menace. On another front, festival-forward creators is fueled by the backdraft from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, and 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Offerings: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fear calendar year ahead: continuations, new stories, plus A hectic Calendar tailored for chills

Dek The arriving scare calendar crams right away with a January cluster, following that unfolds through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, weaving brand equity, creative pitches, and smart counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that transform genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has shown itself to be the sturdy lever in studio calendars, a corner that can scale when it connects and still buffer the drawdown when it falls short. After 2023 demonstrated to top brass that modestly budgeted genre plays can command social chatter, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The upswing pushed into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays proved there is room for varied styles, from sequel tracks to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The result for 2026 is a roster that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a spread of marquee IP and original hooks, and a re-energized strategy on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the space now behaves like a swing piece on the programming map. The genre can bow on open real estate, supply a quick sell for spots and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with moviegoers that appear on first-look nights and sustain through the second weekend if the picture pays off. In the wake of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 setup underscores certainty in that playbook. The year rolls out with a front-loaded January run, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall cadence that reaches into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The schedule also shows the tightening integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is series management across unified worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just pushing another follow-up. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that bridges a new installment to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring material texture, in-camera effects and specific settings. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a vital pairing of brand comfort and novelty, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket moves that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a throwback-friendly bent without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected leaning on franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will build four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that becomes a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that hybridizes longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a final title to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are marketed as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The Halloween runway affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning execution can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Position this as a hard-R summer horror shock that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is marketing as a reset 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 sharper mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can increase deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together library titles with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to keep attention on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival grabs, securing horror entries closer to drop and eventizing drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a dual-phase of tailored theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows 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 audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is known enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind this slate foreshadow a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which work nicely for booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and see here sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. The month caps 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 stiff, but the tone spread creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver 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 premium pass.

Late-season stretch 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 transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power turns and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that mediates the fear via a child’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

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 parody reboot that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident navigate here Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. 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 primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that slowed or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 midrange-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 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 pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, 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 materiality, sound field, and visual design 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.