Ancient Terror Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, streaming Oct 2025 on premium platforms

An terrifying otherworldly shockfest from dramatist / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic terror when unrelated individuals become tokens in a devilish experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing depiction of living through and old world terror that will reconstruct the fear genre this season. Brought to life by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric thriller follows five lost souls who suddenly rise ensnared in a wooded shelter under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a female presence controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a audio-visual venture that fuses deep-seated panic with spiritual backstory, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is turned on its head when the fiends no longer form outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This represents the most primal dimension of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the story becomes a brutal battle between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken wilderness, five characters find themselves contained under the malicious aura and control of a uncanny person. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to break her rule, marooned and stalked by beings beyond comprehension, they are forced to battle their worst nightmares while the deathwatch relentlessly winds toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and bonds collapse, compelling each member to question their existence and the idea of autonomy itself. The tension grow with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken ancestral fear, an force that existed before mankind, feeding on our fears, and highlighting a darkness that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure users anywhere can engage with this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has been viewed over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this unforgettable ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to confront these terrifying truths about the mind.


For featurettes, filmmaker commentary, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts blends primeval-possession lore, underground frights, and franchise surges

Ranging from survivor-centric dread rooted in mythic scripture all the way to legacy revivals plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors hold down the year with established lines, even as premium streamers stack the fall with unboxed visions set against ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is carried on the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with 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 backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a sealed box body horror arc pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare season: continuations, non-franchise titles, together with A brimming Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek The emerging genre calendar lines up up front with a January glut, then extends through peak season, and carrying into the holiday frame, marrying legacy muscle, untold stories, and tactical counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has turned into the predictable option in release plans, a pillar that can spike when it lands and still limit the floor when it does not. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget genre plays can steer the discourse, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where returns and critical darlings signaled there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across players, with mapped-out bands, a harmony of legacy names and new concepts, and a refocused emphasis on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can debut on nearly any frame, generate a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that turn out on Thursday previews and return through the subsequent weekend if the picture satisfies. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 pattern telegraphs trust in that setup. The year begins with a front-loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while keeping space for a fall run that runs into late October and into post-Halloween. The map also features the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a lead change that reconnects a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing practical craft, special makeup and grounded locations. That interplay yields 2026 a healthy mix of assurance and newness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight moves that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a relay and a return-to-roots character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a classic-referencing strategy without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign built on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an synthetic partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that fuses attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are presented as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects treatment can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a proven this website supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that expands both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the tail. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with international acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival snaps, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with prestige directors or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The question, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a rising filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps frame the logic. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to relate entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without extended gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that centers grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. The month closes 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 credible, but the palette of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 scramble to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy swivels and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that channels the fear through a young child’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that targets present-day genre chatter and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 spreads, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan caught in old terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 antique diction and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 value-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shudders sell the seats.