Age-old Terror stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled thriller, streaming October 2025 across top streamers

This bone-chilling paranormal fright fest from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic malevolence when passersby become instruments in a satanic contest. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful account of survival and age-old darkness that will resculpt the horror genre this cool-weather season. Realized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and tone-heavy feature follows five strangers who emerge stuck in a far-off dwelling under the dark control of Kyra, a tormented girl controlled by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Be warned to be drawn in by a visual venture that blends gut-punch terror with folklore, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a mainstay element in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is redefined when the entities no longer manifest from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the haunting layer of all involved. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the tension becomes a brutal conflict between moral forces.


In a abandoned terrain, five adults find themselves imprisoned under the dark effect and infestation of a unidentified female presence. As the companions becomes submissive to escape her control, disconnected and tormented by beings indescribable, they are made to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the deathwatch unforgivingly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and friendships collapse, urging each participant to evaluate their core and the idea of conscious will itself. The danger climb with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore primal fear, an entity from ancient eras, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and navigating a entity that questions who we are when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that flip is haunting because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing users no matter where they are can watch this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original promo, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, making the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Experience this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these chilling revelations about our species.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and news from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the movie’s homepage.





Horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 U.S. release slate blends biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, paired with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in biblical myth to series comebacks alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted together with deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors hold down the year by way of signature titles, in tandem subscription platforms stack the fall with unboxed visions paired with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is carried on the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the WB camp launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, and eerie supernatural logic. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a room scale body horror descent including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trends to Watch

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 oncoming fear lineup: next chapters, non-franchise titles, and also A hectic Calendar designed for chills

Dek The arriving scare slate packs in short order with a January glut, after that unfolds through summer corridors, and straight through the late-year period, balancing marquee clout, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. The major players are embracing responsible budgets, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has established itself as the most reliable swing in release plans, a vertical that can lift when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that efficiently budgeted scare machines can own pop culture, 2024 carried the beat with auteur-driven buzzy films and stealth successes. The head of steam flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and prestige plays underscored there is capacity for a variety of tones, from ongoing IP entries to original features that translate worldwide. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that presents tight coordination across the market, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and new packages, and a reinvigorated priority on cinema windows that fuel later windows on premium video on demand and streaming.

Distribution heads claim the genre now slots in as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can open on numerous frames, deliver a sharp concept for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that turn out on Thursday previews and hold through the next pass if the feature lands. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits certainty in that dynamic. The year begins with a stacked January window, then turns to spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that stretches into the Halloween frame and afterwards. The calendar also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and move wide at the timely point.

Another broad trend is brand strategy across interlocking continuities and classic IP. Studios are not just rolling another follow-up. They are shaping as story carry-over with a headline quality, whether that is a art treatment that flags a fresh attitude or a cast configuration that links a next entry to a classic era. At the parallel to that, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are prioritizing real-world builds, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That mix offers 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance telegraphs a fan-service aware treatment without retreading the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout centered on brand visuals, character-first teases, and a promo sequence arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format fitting quick reframes to whatever owns trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a busy month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back viral uncanny stunts and short reels that blurs affection and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are sold as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot opens a lane to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy method can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror hit that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is positioning as a ground-zero restart 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 charge to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around setting detail, and creature builds, elements that can amplify 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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in careful craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video will mix licensed content with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using editorial spots, fright rows, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries near launch and staging as events premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, 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 savage series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the Christmas window to scale. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their membership.

Brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the deal build is known enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns announce the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that respected streaming windows did not block a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, enables marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Production craft signals

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate signal a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and earns shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster realization and design, which play well in convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months build the summer base. Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects 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 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the power balance upends and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting setup that channels the fear through a minor’s uncertain perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated 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 bursts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new household tethered to ancient dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan this content Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. 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 period-specific language and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, 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.

2026 Looks Exciting

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.