Antediluvian Dread stirs: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One hair-raising metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primordial force when guests become puppets in a hellish maze. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of staying alive and archaic horror that will reshape the horror genre this spooky time. Guided by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie tale follows five individuals who come to imprisoned in a hidden house under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a 2,000-year-old sacred-era entity. Ready yourself to be ensnared by a visual outing that combines gut-punch terror with biblical origins, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a enduring pillar in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the beings no longer descend from an outside force, but rather deep within. This portrays the darkest element of all involved. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the tension becomes a relentless push-pull between light and darkness.


In a isolated wilderness, five souls find themselves marooned under the ominous sway and spiritual invasion of a mysterious female figure. As the characters becomes defenseless to oppose her control, abandoned and chased by forces indescribable, they are forced to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter unforgivingly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and partnerships fracture, coercing each person to evaluate their character and the foundation of conscious will itself. The tension magnify with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines occult fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dig into core terror, an malevolence beyond time, operating within fragile psyche, and highlighting a will that dismantles free will when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is harrowing because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering streamers in all regions can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to confront these terrifying truths about our species.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s sea change: the year 2025 stateside slate blends legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside brand-name tremors

Kicking off with pressure-cooker survival tales infused with legendary theology through to canon extensions together with incisive indie visions, 2025 is tracking to be the richest paired with precision-timed year in years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, at the same time OTT services stack the fall with new voices alongside ancient terrors. In the indie lane, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

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

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a clear present-tense world. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: 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. Though the outline is tried, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma driven plotting, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a forensic chill anthology knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

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

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, led by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 Horror season: entries, standalone ideas, and also A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare year crowds right away with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and well into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, inventive spins, and data-minded counterplay. Studios and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that shape genre releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has established itself as the steady option in release strategies, a segment that can spike when it performs and still protect the risk when it misses. After 2023 reconfirmed for buyers that low-to-mid budget shockers can command audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and critical darlings underscored there is capacity for multiple flavors, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The sum for the 2026 slate is a run that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with clear date clusters, a combination of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated focus on release windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and home platforms.

Planners observe the genre now acts as a fill-in ace on the calendar. Horror can debut on numerous frames, provide a tight logline for teasers and platform-native cuts, and lead with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the film delivers. Exiting a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout underscores comfort in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a weighty January run, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a late-year stretch that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The schedule also includes the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. The players are not just mounting another installment. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that suggests a reframed mood or a cast configuration that links a new entry to a classic era. At the parallel to that, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are favoring practical craft, practical gags and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a lively combination of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing bent without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is clean, somber, and logline-clear: a grieving man purchases an synthetic partner that shifts into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-form creative that fuses intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored 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 leaves room for a title drop to become an headline beat closer to the first look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are treated as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date affords Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror surge that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around narrative world, and monster craft, elements that can lift PLF interest and community activity.

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 follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that boosts both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has shown results for elevated genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By weight, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is spotlighting character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. 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 stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the package is anchored enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that maintained windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium formats. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they alter lens and raise the stakes. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to link the films through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, have a peek at this web-site with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has delivered 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 delivers a self-aware reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: tone-first 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 unyielding boss try to survive on a lonely island as the power dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that explores the dread of a child’s wobbly perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: post-ready. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satirical comeback that skewers current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new household entangled with older hauntings. Rating: TBA. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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 dark-horse hit 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.