Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This haunting spiritual fright fest from storyteller / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic force when outsiders become proxies in a diabolical experiment. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping portrayal of overcoming and forgotten curse that will reconstruct fear-driven cinema this ghoul season. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive fearfest follows five strangers who find themselves sealed in a secluded house under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Brace yourself to be absorbed by a filmic adventure that combines bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is subverted when the dark entities no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This suggests the malevolent corner of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the intensity becomes a merciless battle between good and evil.


In a desolate no-man's-land, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the malevolent effect and grasp of a elusive apparition. As the survivors becomes unable to deny her command, cut off and preyed upon by forces indescribable, they are cornered to endure their raw vulnerabilities while the time without pity edges forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear rises and partnerships fracture, requiring each figure to examine their values and the foundation of conscious will itself. The intensity escalate with every passing moment, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke instinctual horror, an threat beyond time, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and challenging a spirit that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences no matter where they are can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this mind-warping descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about the human condition.


For featurettes, special features, and alerts from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule Mixes archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Beginning with survival horror saturated with ancient scripture as well as IP renewals set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most textured together with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lock in tentpoles through proven series, in parallel premium streamers load up the fall with fresh voices alongside old-world menace. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, the WB camp drops the final chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, grows the animatronic horror lineup, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. 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 continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
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
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch 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.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fright slate: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh scare cycle lines up immediately with a January crush, before it spreads through peak season, and straight through the holidays, weaving name recognition, new voices, and strategic counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are committing to responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has established itself as the sturdy move in studio calendars, a lane that can spike when it connects and still hedge the downside when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that mid-range entries can dominate pop culture, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and unexpected risers. The trend carried into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays confirmed there is a market for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with defined corridors, a mix of known properties and fresh ideas, and a re-energized eye on exclusive windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the space now works like a flex slot on the grid. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a grabby hook for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with audiences that lean in on early shows and stay strong through the week two if the entry delivers. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates confidence in that model. The year commences with a crowded January run, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall run that runs into late October and into post-Halloween. The map also features the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the right moment.

A notable top-line trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studios are not just rolling another follow-up. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that bridges a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the top original plays are championing tactile craft, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay produces the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach hints at a throwback-friendly strategy without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Look for a marketing run rooted in heritage visuals, early character teases, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive wide buzz through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever drives genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that turns into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on odd public stunts and short-form creative that melds attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to fill 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, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven treatment can feel deluxe on a moderate cost. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is describing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both devotees and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around setting detail, and creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that amplifies both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, horror hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival snaps, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Look for an A24 acquisition out of see here Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 tips toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The go-to fix is to pitch each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not preclude a hybrid test from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. Universal’s 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic flips and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting chiller that channels the fear through a young child’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and framing 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.