Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One spine-tingling paranormal scare-fest from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric terror when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a dark ceremony. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching portrayal of living through and prehistoric entity that will revolutionize terror storytelling this autumn. Helmed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five unacquainted souls who snap to confined in a wilderness-bound shack under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a central character possessed by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Be prepared to be seized by a narrative display that fuses gut-punch terror with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a classic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the demons no longer come from an outside force, but rather from their core. This portrays the haunting shade of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the emotions becomes a relentless conflict between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned wilderness, five figures find themselves stuck under the possessive effect and domination of a elusive female figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to combat her manipulation, marooned and pursued by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are thrust to acknowledge their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline unceasingly runs out toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and links shatter, demanding each soul to reflect on their identity and the notion of conscious will itself. The cost escalate with every minute, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken primitive panic, an threat rooted in antiquity, manipulating human fragility, and challenging a presence that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing fans from coast to coast can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has racked up over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to lovers of terror across nations.


Be sure to catch this soul-jarring path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to experience these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For teasers, making-of footage, and updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across your socials and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate Mixes legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from survivor-centric dread grounded in near-Eastern lore through to canon extensions together with focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the most dimensioned and deliberate year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Major studios bookend the months with familiar IP, in parallel streamers stack the fall with fresh voices in concert with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the independent cohort is carried on the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, the Warner Bros. banner unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. While the template is known, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. 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 with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, from Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

What to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next genre Year Ahead: brand plays, original films, together with A brimming Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The incoming terror season builds from the jump with a January logjam, subsequently flows through the summer months, and deep into the festive period, combining brand equity, inventive spins, and calculated calendar placement. The major players are relying on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the steady counterweight in annual schedules, a lane that can spike when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it doesn’t. After 2023 reminded top brass that low-to-mid budget entries can command cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and quiet over-performers. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is demand for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the industry, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of household franchises and novel angles, and a tightened strategy on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and home streaming.

Schedulers say the category now behaves like a fill-in ace on the slate. Horror can kick off on most weekends, offer a sharp concept for teasers and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that appear on advance nights and continue through the next weekend if the entry works. Post a production delay era, the 2026 setup signals faith in that setup. The slate opens with a crowded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for counterweight, while holding room for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and afterwards. The grid also features the greater integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across shared universes and veteran brands. Major shops are not just making another continuation. They are setting up lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a refreshed voice or a casting move that anchors a new entry to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and distinct locales. That mix produces the 2026 slate a smart balance of trust and shock, which is the formula for international play.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount fires first with two front-of-slate moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a relay and a back-to-basics character study. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the tonal posture announces a heritage-honoring approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign stacked with heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a summer relief option, this one will go after wide buzz through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny live moments and snackable content that threads affection and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser that holds back and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel big on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around world-building, and monster craft, elements that can boost IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

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 Eggers’ run of period click site horror grounded in meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library engagement, using timely promos, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about Netflix originals and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events drops with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of selective theatrical runs 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+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Expect 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. 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 driving a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns outline the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that observed windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that foreground pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years weblink Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 far-flung island as the pecking order flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that frames the panic through a youngster’s unsteady perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody return that needles contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan caught in older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and image-making 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, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.