Age-old Evil Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked horror feature, streaming Oct 2025 on major platforms

One eerie otherworldly fright fest from creator / director Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless evil when unrelated individuals become tools in a demonic contest. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish tale of overcoming and mythic evil that will alter fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy tale follows five lost souls who wake up ensnared in a secluded lodge under the dark command of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Be warned to be shaken by a immersive journey that intertwines soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the presences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most sinister shade of the group. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the events becomes a relentless clash between heaven and hell.


In a remote backcountry, five campers find themselves cornered under the sinister sway and spiritual invasion of a unknown entity. As the ensemble becomes defenseless to resist her dominion, marooned and targeted by evils unnamable, they are required to wrestle with their darkest emotions while the clock without pity ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and bonds disintegrate, requiring each participant to contemplate their being and the idea of decision-making itself. The pressure mount with every heartbeat, delivering a terror ride that weaves together demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to draw upon pure dread, an evil born of forgotten ages, influencing emotional vulnerability, and exposing a power that redefines identity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that transformation is shocking because it is so internal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that customers anywhere can be part of this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this visceral fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to survive these spiritual awakenings about existence.


For cast commentary, making-of footage, and updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 stateside slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with franchise surges

Moving from life-or-death fear inspired by ancient scripture and including returning series in concert with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified paired with blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses bookend the months with franchise anchors, while SVOD players front-load the fall with emerging auteurs and ancestral chills. At the same time, the art-house flank is buoyed by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are surgical, so 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 terror lineup: brand plays, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The incoming terror year crowds up front with a January glut, before it spreads through the warm months, and carrying into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, creative pitches, and shrewd counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are committing to mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these films into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has emerged as the dependable swing in studio slates, a category that can scale when it resonates and still safeguard the losses when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year showed executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can steer the national conversation, the following year sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is capacity for diverse approaches, from series extensions to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that presents tight coordination across distributors, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a re-energized emphasis on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now operates like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a tight logline for spots and social clips, and overperform with moviegoers that respond on early shows and hold through the subsequent weekend if the picture pays off. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan reflects certainty in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a October build that reaches into spooky season and into November. The program also illustrates the tightening integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across linked properties and heritage properties. Studios are not just rolling another installment. They are working to present connection with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a latest entry to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are doubling down on in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a memory-charged angle without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run stacked with heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic get redirected here Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-form creative that interlaces affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, practical-first strategy can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shock that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is framing as a reimagined restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both players and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features 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 glowing.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival acquisitions, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a laddered of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the deal build is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that observed windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they change perspective and expand the canvas. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which match well with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that put concept first.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 severe boss work to survive on a lonely island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that twists the panic of a child’s uncertain senses. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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-accurate language and elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where value-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and visuals 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.