Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A terrifying paranormal suspense film from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval curse when outsiders become tokens in a hellish maze. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking narrative of resilience and ancient evil that will reshape terror storytelling this ghoul season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and immersive story follows five unknowns who suddenly rise isolated in a unreachable cabin under the oppressive will of Kyra, a central character dominated by a time-worn Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be shaken by a big screen spectacle that blends raw fear with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a historical trope in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the demons no longer originate externally, but rather from deep inside. This suggests the darkest corner of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal identity crisis where the conflict becomes a ongoing battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak no-man's-land, five individuals find themselves stuck under the possessive sway and inhabitation of a uncanny female presence. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to deny her will, detached and pursued by creatures unimaginable, they are forced to encounter their soulful dreads while the deathwatch unforgivingly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and alliances crack, pushing each participant to evaluate their values and the idea of volition itself. The cost amplify with every heartbeat, delivering a nightmarish journey that integrates mystical fear with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke primal fear, an malevolence older than civilization itself, working through emotional fractures, and questioning a entity that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the control shifts, and that flip is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans everywhere can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has garnered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to international horror buffs.


Don’t miss this mind-warping fall into madness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For director insights, director cuts, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit the official movie site.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule integrates archetypal-possession themes, indie terrors, plus tentpole growls

Ranging from survival horror grounded in old testament echoes to legacy revivals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most dimensioned and blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. studio majors bookend the months with known properties, at the same time streaming platforms prime the fall with emerging auteurs set against legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is carried on the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close 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.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows 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, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

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

Streaming originals get teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Season Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new 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 success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fear Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The arriving genre year builds immediately with a January glut, after that flows through midyear, and straight through the holiday frame, combining name recognition, inventive spins, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are focusing on lean spends, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that pivot genre titles into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has solidified as the bankable option in annual schedules, a segment that can grow when it connects and still cushion the losses when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for strategy teams that disciplined-budget horror vehicles can steer social chatter, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The run pushed into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers showed there is space for different modes, from series extensions to original features that travel well. The combined impact for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a refocused emphasis on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital and OTT platforms.

Executives say the space now performs as a flex slot on the schedule. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, supply a tight logline for marketing and vertical videos, and lead with viewers that respond on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the title works. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals assurance in that setup. The year commences with a busy January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a autumn push that flows toward Halloween and afterwards. The schedule also shows the continuing integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and roll out at the timely point.

A companion trend is brand management across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Major shops are not just greenlighting another return. They are trying to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a logo package that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a next film to a foundational era. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the most watched originals are leaning into physical effects work, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That blend produces 2026 a confident blend of assurance and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent moves that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a fan-service aware mode without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout centered on recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward 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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that turns into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to mirror uncanny live moments and short reels that interweaves intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are framed as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to own 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Position this as a red-band summer horror jolt that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform tactics for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival additions, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and swift platform pivots that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be critical for horror Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown a willingness to board select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is known enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror surged in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and widen scale. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, enables marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued turn toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds grain and menace rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month buttons 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 palette of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Winter into spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s intelligent companion escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Get More Info Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting scenario that interrogates the terror of a child’s wobbly interpretations. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family anchored to old terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: proceeding. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three grounded forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use 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 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, 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 imagery 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 update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.