Mythic Dread surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked chiller, launching October 2025 on leading streamers

A terrifying metaphysical shockfest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old dread when strangers become tokens in a diabolical ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving saga of perseverance and primordial malevolence that will alter terror storytelling this fall. Directed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and cinematic fearfest follows five young adults who snap to imprisoned in a wooded cottage under the malignant sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Prepare to be gripped by a cinematic experience that merges visceral dread with mythic lore, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is inverted when the entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from their core. This portrays the most hidden corner of the cast. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the conflict becomes a soul-crushing struggle between heaven and hell.


In a remote terrain, five campers find themselves trapped under the evil presence and curse of a mysterious female presence. As the cast becomes unable to break her rule, disconnected and pursued by entities inconceivable, they are pushed to acknowledge their core terrors while the hours brutally counts down toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and friendships splinter, compelling each cast member to evaluate their existence and the concept of liberty itself. The pressure amplify with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines unearthly horror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract primal fear, an presence from prehistory, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and highlighting a power that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that watchers globally can enjoy this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, bringing the film to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this gripping descent into hell. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these dark realities about free will.


For behind-the-scenes access, filmmaker commentary, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets domestic schedule weaves ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, in parallel with series shake-ups

Ranging from survival horror drawn from mythic scripture as well as brand-name continuations as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the most textured together with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios lock in tentpoles with known properties, even as platform operators pack the fall with debut heat and archetypal fear. In parallel, festival-forward creators is propelled by the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium dread reemerges

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It arrives in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. 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.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep 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.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

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

Heritage Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The 2026 scare calendar year ahead: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A packed Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The arriving genre year loads early with a January cluster, before it carries through summer corridors, and well into the late-year period, marrying brand heft, new voices, and savvy counterweight. Studios with streamers are committing to lean spends, box-office-first windows, and viral-minded pushes that frame these films into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the predictable release in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it connects and still limit the drag when it stumbles. After the 2023 year re-taught executives that lean-budget genre plays can own the discourse, the following year extended the rally with buzzy auteur projects and quiet over-performers. The head of steam extended into 2025, where legacy revivals and festival-grade titles confirmed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that travel well. The end result for 2026 is a slate that seems notably aligned across studios, with purposeful groupings, a blend of established brands and new concepts, and a sharpened emphasis on box-office windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the category now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the programming map. The genre can kick off on open real estate, provide a simple premise for spots and shorts, and exceed norms with patrons that lean in on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering satisfies. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm exhibits faith in that approach. The slate gets underway with a busy January block, then primes spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn stretch that carries into late October and past Halloween. The map also reflects the expanded integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and roll out at the timely point.

A notable top-line trend is franchise tending across shared IP webs and long-running brands. The players are not just turning out another chapter. They are shaping as continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting move that links a incoming chapter to a initial period. At the same time, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on physical effects work, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That mix hands the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two high-profile pushes that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a classic-referencing bent without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign leaning on classic imagery, character-first teases, and a staggered trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever defines the discourse that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an intelligent companion that grows into a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to revisit strange in-person beats and short-form creative that interlaces romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, this page 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, practical-effects forward mix can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror rush that pushes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can increase premium format interest 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 rooted in minute detail and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video blends library titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival deals, confirming horror entries closer to launch and making event-like debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday frame to widen. That positioning has shown results for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using targeted theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, 2026 is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The standing approach is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-accented approach from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the assembly is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set outline the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and raise the stakes. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid headline IP. The month closes 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 serious, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion unfolds into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss claw to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that mediates the fear via a little one’s unreliable subjective lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: pending. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: not yet rated. Production: continuing. 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 era-accurate language and primordial menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can pounce on 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 sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 lower and mid-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 maximize those pockets. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound field, and visuals 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, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the shocks sell the seats.