Antediluvian Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, arriving October 2025 across major streaming services

One unnerving mystic fear-driven tale from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an primordial curse when unrelated individuals become pawns in a satanic ceremony. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking account of overcoming and timeless dread that will revamp the horror genre this October. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and moody feature follows five unacquainted souls who snap to trapped in a off-grid lodge under the malignant rule of Kyra, a tormented girl claimed by a prehistoric scriptural evil. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a filmic event that merges primitive horror with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing pillar in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the monsters no longer arise from beyond, but rather from within. This illustrates the haunting aspect of every character. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the drama becomes a constant clash between moral forces.


In a haunting landscape, five campers find themselves isolated under the fiendish presence and infestation of a secretive person. As the protagonists becomes incapable to resist her rule, marooned and stalked by entities unnamable, they are required to face their greatest panics while the deathwatch without pity pushes forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension builds and connections dissolve, compelling each member to rethink their existence and the idea of volition itself. The stakes surge with every beat, delivering a terror ride that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to explore ancestral fear, an entity older than civilization itself, filtering through mental cracks, and challenging a being that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something past sanity. She is innocent until the possession kicks in, and that shift is deeply unsettling because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering horror lovers around the globe can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original clip, which has seen over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Watch *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to dive into these unholy truths about mankind.


For director insights, director cuts, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursed across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. calendar interlaces ancient-possession motifs, microbudget gut-punches, paired with brand-name tremors

Beginning with endurance-driven terror steeped in ancient scripture through to returning series set beside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified combined with tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios stabilize the year with familiar IP, concurrently premium streamers pack the fall with new perspectives alongside ancestral chills. On another front, the independent cohort is propelled by the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner starts the year with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: 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. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

SVOD Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming Horror season: installments, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The new genre year clusters early with a January wave, subsequently spreads through the warm months, and deep into the winter holidays, combining IP strength, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has solidified as the dependable tool in release plans, a lane that can scale when it hits and still mitigate the liability when it does not. After the 2023 year showed greenlighters that cost-conscious shockers can drive social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects proved there is a lane for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a combination of established brands and new pitches, and a revived emphasis on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, offer a clean hook for trailers and reels, and outpace with fans that lean in on first-look nights and return through the week two if the offering hits. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern indicates assurance in that logic. The slate begins with a weighty January block, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a September to October window that reaches into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The gridline also underscores the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just making another sequel. They are aiming to frame connection with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the concurrently, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating in-camera technique, in-camera effects and specific settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a nostalgia-forward campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, somber, and commercial: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a deadly partner. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial promo. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are presented as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, in-camera leaning style can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a trusty supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and creature design, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on textural authenticity and language, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that maximizes both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed titles with global acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using seasonal hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to drop and staging as events go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is direct: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas corridor to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception allows. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By proportion, 2026 tilts in favor of the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use household recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is foregrounding character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the bundle is assuring enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps help explain the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that held distribution windows did not obstruct a parallel release from performing when the brand was robust. In 2024, precision craft horror punched above its weight in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 produced back-to-back, lets marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries point to a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which match well with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is loaded. 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 foggy reset amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that refracts terror through a little one’s wavering POV. Rating: TBA. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet great post to read rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. 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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. this website Rating: TBD. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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 cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sound, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.