Ancient Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling horror thriller, premiering October 2025 across top streamers

This eerie supernatural thriller from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten terror when passersby become subjects in a devilish contest. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of perseverance and primeval wickedness that will revamp the fear genre this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic film follows five teens who arise sealed in a secluded shelter under the malignant sway of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a biblical-era religious nightmare. Anticipate to be enthralled by a cinematic adventure that harmonizes raw fear with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is inverted when the monsters no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather deep within. This mirrors the most sinister layer of all involved. The result is a intense mind game where the tension becomes a merciless struggle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a barren wild, five souls find themselves caught under the ominous rule and haunting of a haunted character. As the ensemble becomes powerless to resist her grasp, severed and tormented by beings indescribable, they are made to reckon with their worst nightmares while the hours without pity strikes toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and links shatter, urging each cast member to examine their personhood and the structure of free will itself. The stakes accelerate with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dig into elemental fright, an threat beyond recorded history, emerging via soul-level flaws, and testing a force that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something deeper than fear. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is bone-chilling because it is so private.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving streamers internationally can get immersed in this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to global fright lovers.


Be sure to catch this life-altering path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to uncover these fearful discoveries about free will.


For sneak peeks, production news, and news from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 U.S. Slate integrates Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, plus IP aftershocks

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in ancient scripture and onward to canon extensions together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned plus blueprinted year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, as SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives alongside scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is catching the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives 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.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. From writer director 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. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: 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 including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The new terror lineup: Sequels, Originals, plus A Crowded Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The new terror season packs up front with a January logjam, then flows through peak season, and carrying into the holiday stretch, braiding name recognition, fresh ideas, and calculated offsets. Studios and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that position these offerings into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a category that can spike when it performs and still limit the downside when it falls short. After 2023 proved to leaders that lean-budget pictures can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 maintained heat with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The carry moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles signaled there is demand for several lanes, from legacy continuations to original features that play globally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the major shops, with purposeful groupings, a balance of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a revived stance on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Buyers contend the category now slots in as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can roll out on most weekends, create a clean hook for previews and reels, and outpace with ticket buyers that respond on preview nights and return through the next weekend if the release fires. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 layout signals conviction in that dynamic. The slate launches with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and broaden at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just producing another chapter. They are seeking to position story carry-over with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a star attachment that binds a latest entry to a classic era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring in-camera technique, practical effects and distinct locales. That combination produces the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and novelty, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two centerpiece projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a back-to-basics character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative check over here posture conveys a roots-evoking bent without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Count on a promo wave anchored in heritage visuals, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is tidy, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an machine companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses companionship and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. The filmmaker’s films are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser with minimal detail and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to lead 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, hands-on effects strategy can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Look for a splatter summer horror jolt that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can stoke format premiums and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a tiered path that elevates both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival deals, slotting horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday frame to scale. That positioning has served the company well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their user base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a day-date try from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global get redirected here horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, enables marketing to interlace chapters through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month winds down 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 thick, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. 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 grieving man’s AI companion grows into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the power balance swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s tactile craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting piece that routes the horror through a young child’s flickering point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title 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 riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: active. 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 era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 debuts. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lean-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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.