Antediluvian Horror emerges: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding feature, rolling out October 2025 on leading streamers

An unnerving paranormal horror tale from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old fear when foreigners become victims in a supernatural conflict. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of resilience and primeval wickedness that will revolutionize the fear genre this October. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy motion picture follows five unknowns who awaken stuck in a far-off house under the sinister influence of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a time-worn scriptural evil. Anticipate to be gripped by a theatrical outing that harmonizes bone-deep fear with mystical narratives, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a recurring fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is challenged when the dark entities no longer emerge externally, but rather internally. This suggests the grimmest layer of these individuals. The result is a emotionally raw emotional conflict where the tension becomes a intense contest between heaven and hell.


In a remote no-man's-land, five campers find themselves confined under the evil force and possession of a obscure being. As the ensemble becomes helpless to evade her power, stranded and tracked by spirits beyond reason, they are pushed to endure their core terrors while the timeline unforgivingly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust intensifies and connections shatter, pushing each figure to evaluate their self and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The cost intensify with every second, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to awaken pure dread, an entity from prehistory, manifesting in human fragility, and exposing a presence that redefines identity when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something rooted in terror. She is clueless until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans globally can engage with this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this life-altering exploration of dread. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to acknowledge these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For cast commentary, behind-the-scenes content, and updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our horror hub.





Horror’s Turning Point: 2025 U.S. lineup blends ancient-possession motifs, independent shockers, stacked beside series shake-ups

Running from survivor-centric dread inspired by mythic scripture and extending to installment follow-ups in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the richest and precision-timed year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios bookend the months using marquee IP, in parallel subscription platforms crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is fueled by the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Guided by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: 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 Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. 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 fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror resurges
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The 2026 scare calendar year ahead: brand plays, fresh concepts, and also A stacked Calendar aimed at goosebumps

Dek The new scare season loads immediately with a January bottleneck, thereafter unfolds through summer, and deep into the late-year period, blending series momentum, creative pitches, and well-timed counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that position genre releases into national conversation.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has grown into the dependable swing in studio lineups, a space that can scale when it clicks and still cushion the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year demonstrated to leaders that low-to-mid budget genre plays can galvanize cultural conversation, 2024 extended the rally with auteur-driven buzzy films and stealth successes. The head of steam flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for a spectrum, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that play globally. The net effect for 2026 is a slate that appears tightly organized across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a reinvigorated strategy on release windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Schedulers say the category now behaves like a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, offer a simple premise for spots and reels, and outpace with audiences that show up on previews Thursday and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the movie pays off. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows certainty in that engine. The calendar opens with a stacked January run, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a autumn push that carries into the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also features the deeper integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and move wide at the strategic time.

A companion trend is brand management across shared universes and storied titles. Major shops are not just producing another continuation. They are trying to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that bridges a new installment to a first wave. At the in tandem, the directors behind the most watched originals are leaning into in-camera technique, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That fusion gives 2026 a solid mix of trust and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both a handoff and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push leaning on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will build mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick switches to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo odd public stunts and micro spots that hybridizes intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His projects are marketed as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror rush that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is positioning as a new take 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 sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around canon, and creature effects, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both initial urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs third-party pickups with worldwide entries and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, October hubs, and curated rows to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival grabs, securing horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a per-project basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence 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 direct: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Be ready for 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 this content often work as a pair, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit household recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a emerging director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the bundle is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a have a peek here theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not deter a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, allows marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds unease and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which match well with convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the click to read more original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate mutates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-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 hard-edged boss work to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 intimate haunting chiller that threads the dread through a preteen’s unreliable perspective. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that teases current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan lashed to old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. 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 language and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured 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 launches. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase 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 pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound field, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.