Antediluvian Evil Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A blood-curdling paranormal terror film from writer / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric curse when newcomers become conduits in a malevolent struggle. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful saga of perseverance and age-old darkness that will redefine the horror genre this cool-weather season. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic screenplay follows five figures who awaken locked in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the unfriendly grip of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a legendary religious nightmare. Prepare to be immersed by a immersive display that unites bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the malevolences no longer manifest from external sources, but rather from within. This marks the shadowy facet of the group. The result is a riveting identity crisis where the narrative becomes a unyielding push-pull between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting wilderness, five adults find themselves contained under the evil force and curse of a unknown character. As the victims becomes defenseless to deny her command, left alone and pursued by evils inconceivable, they are confronted to acknowledge their soulful dreads while the deathwatch unceasingly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety grows and links shatter, requiring each cast member to challenge their character and the idea of liberty itself. The stakes accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that fuses unearthly horror with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into basic terror, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, working through our weaknesses, and challenging a spirit that peels away humanity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that users no matter where they are can face this unholy film.


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


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this gripping voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to dive into these unholy truths about the human condition.


For film updates, on-set glimpses, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s inflection point: 2025 American release plan braids together primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, plus Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in ancient scripture and including installment follow-ups in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex plus calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. studio majors hold down the year with established lines, at the same time subscription platforms stack the fall with new voices alongside legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is riding the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Signals and Trends

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 pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

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

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming chiller cycle: entries, universe starters, alongside A busy Calendar geared toward shocks

Dek The arriving horror calendar crams right away with a January logjam, following that carries through midyear, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and shrewd calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has grown into the sturdy release in studio slates, a segment that can accelerate when it catches and still cushion the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer social chatter, 2024 continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across players, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated stance on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and SVOD.

Insiders argue the genre now operates like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for previews and social clips, and punch above weight with patrons that come out on previews Thursday and continue through the next pass if the entry hits. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan indicates belief in that playbook. The slate commences with a stacked January run, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a autumn push that extends to Halloween and past the holiday. The grid also illustrates the greater integration of indie arms and home platforms that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and scale up at the proper time.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared universes and established properties. Distribution groups are not just releasing another follow-up. They are looking to package lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title treatment that telegraphs a recalibrated tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a next entry to a first wave. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing in-camera technique, on-set effects and grounded locations. That mix hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount leads early with two headline moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a origin-leaning character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a memory-charged mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave leaning on franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate general-audience talk through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that evolves into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interweaves intimacy and terror.

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 posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a public title to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s work are set up as creative events, with a minimalist tease and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy aesthetic can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Expect a red-band summer horror charge that emphasizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is presenting as a clean-slate approach 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 well-defined brief to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with worldwide buys and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about originals and festival deals, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events arrivals with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of precision releases and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules great post to read or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps frame the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and grow scope. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind this slate suggest a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft features 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 set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, 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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month buttons 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 stiff, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Back half 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 steps in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. 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 mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 prickly boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that filters its scares through a minor’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural 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 spoof revival that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fervors. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family bound to past horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that stalled or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

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

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 grain, sonics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.