Age-old Terror Returns within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on major platforms

A blood-curdling supernatural shockfest from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an primeval force when newcomers become conduits in a hellish ceremony. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of staying alive and forgotten curse that will remodel scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric thriller follows five unacquainted souls who come to imprisoned in a remote cabin under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a antiquated sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be absorbed by a cinematic experience that harmonizes intense horror with ancient myths, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a classic theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer arise beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This echoes the deepest aspect of these individuals. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the emotions becomes a perpetual conflict between right and wrong.


In a haunting landscape, five individuals find themselves contained under the ominous aura and haunting of a shadowy being. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to resist her curse, left alone and followed by presences unfathomable, they are required to endure their inner demons while the countdown brutally runs out toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and alliances break, urging each cast member to challenge their core and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The hazard surge with every short lapse, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken elemental fright, an entity before modern man, operating within fragile psyche, and questioning a curse that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant channeling something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so internal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring households from coast to coast can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Do not miss this haunted ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to witness these fearful discoveries about the psyche.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus stateside slate melds ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare steeped in mythic scripture through to returning series as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most complex combined with calculated campaign year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, even as SVOD players prime the fall with discovery plays plus archetypal fear. On the independent axis, independent banners is propelled by the momentum of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are exacting, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable with Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

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

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered 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.

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.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

What’s Next: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 terror release year: continuations, non-franchise titles, and also A stacked Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The fresh genre calendar crams at the outset with a January crush, then carries through summer, and continuing into the late-year period, marrying marquee clout, fresh ideas, and strategic release strategy. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and platform-native promos that pivot these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the dependable swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still protect the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can galvanize mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The tailwind fed into 2025, where returns and elevated films proved there is an opening for many shades, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that travel well. The aggregate for 2026 is a grid that seems notably aligned across companies, with intentional bunching, a blend of household franchises and new concepts, and a tightened emphasis on release windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and platforms.

Marketers add the category now slots in as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can arrive on open real estate, provide a simple premise for teasers and shorts, and outpace with ticket buyers that appear on Thursday nights and keep coming through the second frame if the movie delivers. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates trust in that engine. The year rolls out with a crowded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a autumn stretch that stretches into the fright window and into post-Halloween. The calendar also highlights the ongoing integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and roll out at the timely point.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and legacy franchises. The companies are not just pushing another next film. They are setting up lineage with a specialness, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a casting move that connects a latest entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That alloy affords the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a classic-mode character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a classic-referencing angle without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push driven by heritage visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever dominates the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are set up as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven mix can feel prestige on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror jolt that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a new foundation 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 directive to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around environmental design, and creature design, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is positive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a stair-step that optimizes both first-week urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to sustain interest on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival snaps, dating horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to sell each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a fresh helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects supply the oxygen. 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns frame the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and widen scale. 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 double feature plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The director conversations behind the year’s horror forecast a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in con floor moments and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month concludes 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 thick, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited teasers that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. 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 devastated man’s AI companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town weblink in search of a lost love, only to meet a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss claw to survive on a rugged island as the power dynamic flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that refracts terror through a child’s unreliable subjective lens. Rating: pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household entangled with lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026, why now

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. 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 outpaced straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.