Mythic Evil emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, rolling out October 2025 on major streaming services

One eerie unearthly fear-driven tale from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic malevolence when unrelated individuals become tools in a hellish maze. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing chronicle of living through and prehistoric entity that will alter the fear genre this Halloween season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive fearfest follows five strangers who find themselves caught in a remote shack under the malignant power of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Get ready to be enthralled by a motion picture venture that integrates visceral dread with ancient myths, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is turned on its head when the monsters no longer descend from an outside force, but rather from their core. This depicts the deepest facet of these individuals. The result is a riveting psychological battle where the story becomes a soul-crushing struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken wild, five souls find themselves cornered under the sinister force and overtake of a unknown spirit. As the team becomes unresisting to withstand her will, stranded and chased by forces ungraspable, they are pushed to stand before their core terrors while the moments unceasingly pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion deepens and connections dissolve, pushing each person to reconsider their values and the structure of conscious will itself. The risk mount with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes spiritual fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to tap into deep fear, an evil from prehistory, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and exposing a darkness that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the curse activates, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering subscribers from coast to coast can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, spreading the horror to thrill-seekers globally.


Mark your calendar for this visceral descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For featurettes, production news, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s major pivot: the year 2025 domestic schedule fuses archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, and returning-series thunder

Across survival horror infused with scriptural legend and stretching into canon extensions alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned combined with calculated campaign year for the modern era.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios set cornerstones through proven series, even as premium streamers flood the fall with debut heat as well as primordial unease. At the same time, indie storytellers is fueled by the carry from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, and in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed 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.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

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 thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 genre lineup: returning titles, new stories, together with A jammed Calendar designed for frights

Dek The brand-new genre slate lines up at the outset with a January cluster, following that rolls through summer, and continuing into the winter holidays, combining IP strength, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The major players are prioritizing cost discipline, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that transform genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has turned into the steady lever in studio slates, a genre that can scale when it clicks and still safeguard the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year reassured top brass that lean-budget fright engines can lead cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and prestige plays confirmed there is room for many shades, from returning installments to original one-offs that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the major shops, with defined corridors, a harmony of established brands and new concepts, and a revived commitment on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and digital services.

Planners observe the space now performs as a schedule utility on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on nearly any frame, supply a sharp concept for ad units and shorts, and outpace with ticket buyers that appear on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the next pass if the release works. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that setup. The calendar commences with a front-loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a September to October window that carries into All Hallows period and into early November. The map also features the tightening integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can build gradually, create conversation, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is franchise tending across unified worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just rolling another entry. They are seeking to position ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that binds a next film to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the marquee originals are championing practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That combination offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a succession moment and a heritage-centered character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a imp source roots-evoking mode without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run centered on heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a summer relief option, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is elegant, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that escalates into a lethal partner. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit strange in-person beats and short-form creative that interweaves affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a official title to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are framed as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, prosthetic-heavy mix can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror rush that leans hard into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is selling as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around narrative world, and creature work, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in meticulous craft and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that amplifies both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed films with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in archive usage, using curated hubs, horror hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival wins, confirming horror entries near their drops and framing as events arrivals with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a laddered of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor 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 Get More Info is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not preclude a dual release from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through character web and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind these films indicate a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which favor con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is jammed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 work to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating 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 household haunting story that leverages the horror of a child’s shaky perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 surges, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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-precise speech and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and framing 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition 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, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.