Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising chiller, streaming Oct 2025 across major streaming services

A spine-tingling occult nightmare movie from writer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an archaic force when unfamiliar people become tokens in a hellish struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense narrative of overcoming and archaic horror that will transform terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric suspense flick follows five unacquainted souls who regain consciousness locked in a far-off hideaway under the aggressive command of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be captivated by a audio-visual adventure that unites intense horror with timeless legends, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic motif in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the spirits no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This mirrors the darkest dimension of the group. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the story becomes a unyielding confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a unforgiving woodland, five young people find themselves confined under the dark influence and overtake of a enigmatic female figure. As the group becomes incapacitated to resist her influence, detached and tracked by forces unfathomable, they are forced to reckon with their core terrors while the deathwatch coldly ticks toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and associations disintegrate, demanding each person to scrutinize their values and the idea of autonomy itself. The tension mount with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges spiritual fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into primal fear, an threat older than civilization itself, emerging via fragile psyche, and exposing a darkness that threatens selfhood when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something darker than pain. She is ignorant until the curse activates, and that pivot is emotionally raw because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing horror lovers from coast to coast can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first preview, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to scare fans abroad.


Experience this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these terrifying truths about our species.


For bonus footage, making-of footage, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup weaves old-world possession, signature indie scares, and franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror suffused with ancient scripture to installment follow-ups together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified plus deliberate year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. top-tier distributors stabilize the year with franchise anchors, while SVOD players saturate the fall with fresh voices plus primordial unease. On the festival side, the artisan tier is riding the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Economy, maximum dread

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is destined for a fall landing.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Authored 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Brands: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror reemerges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming terror lineup: installments, filmmaker-first projects, together with A busy Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The fresh terror calendar crowds right away with a January bottleneck, subsequently flows through summer, and straight through the year-end corridor, fusing IP strength, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. Studios and streamers are betting on efficient budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that convert genre titles into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the predictable swing in studio slates, a segment that can expand when it lands and still hedge the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 signaled to executives that responsibly budgeted chillers can steer audience talk, the following year kept energy high with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The run carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays confirmed there is appetite for a variety of tones, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a lineup that seems notably aligned across the market, with intentional bunching, a balance of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a refocused commitment on exhibition windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now slots in as a schedule utility on the schedule. The genre can kick off on open real estate, generate a easy sell for marketing and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that show up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the second frame if the movie satisfies. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration shows belief in that equation. The slate starts with a crowded January window, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a fall corridor that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The grid also underscores the deeper integration of indie distributors and streamers that can platform and widen, create conversation, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and veteran brands. Studios are not just making another return. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a talent selection that bridges a new installment to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That blend provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a handoff and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a throwback-friendly framework without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in iconic art, early character teases, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, heartbroken, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an digital partner that unfolds into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit creepy live activations and quick hits that hybridizes love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend creates space for Universal to take 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a raw, physical-effects centered style can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror hit that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both players and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a pacing that maximizes both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs licensed content with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog discovery, using editorial spots, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events premieres with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together 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 proposition is clear: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By share, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is assuring enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not preclude a hybrid test from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they shift POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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-step approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without lulls.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate point to a continued lean toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which work nicely for booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is heavy. 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 larger 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 legit, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s algorithmic partner grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 difficult boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 intimate haunting narrative that explores the horror of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that teases contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 flares, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured 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 dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 press those advantages. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have movies 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 beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, 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 materiality, aural design, and picture 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 Promising 2026

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand power where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.