Primeval Evil Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling feature, streaming Oct 2025 on global platforms

An bone-chilling ghostly suspense film from author / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an age-old force when passersby become tools in a demonic struggle. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish story of endurance and old world terror that will remodel terror storytelling this autumn. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic thriller follows five unknowns who suddenly rise imprisoned in a wooded hideaway under the sinister grip of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be hooked by a cinematic venture that intertwines raw fear with ancestral stories, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is turned on its head when the spirits no longer form outside their bodies, but rather internally. This depicts the most terrifying part of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling mental war where the conflict becomes a ongoing contest between virtue and vice.


In a haunting wild, five characters find themselves marooned under the ominous grip and spiritual invasion of a haunted character. As the protagonists becomes unresisting to oppose her manipulation, detached and pursued by creatures unfathomable, they are made to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the deathwatch unforgivingly pushes forward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust deepens and links splinter, pressuring each soul to challenge their personhood and the integrity of free will itself. The risk intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that connects supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to explore primal fear, an spirit that predates humanity, manipulating inner turmoil, and exposing a being that tests the soul when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that transition is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audience access beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering households everywhere can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Witness this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Explore *Young & Cursed* this launch day to see these haunting secrets about human nature.


For featurettes, production news, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves myth-forward possession, underground frights, stacked beside tentpole growls

Running from endurance-driven terror inspired by legendary theology and onward to series comebacks paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most complex paired with carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios bookend the months with familiar IP, even as streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays in concert with primordial unease. On the festival side, festival-forward creators is fueled by the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters bet on familiarity, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite 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 virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, 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 original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
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 reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 Horror season: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, together with A brimming Calendar Built For screams

Dek The new genre cycle crowds right away with a January wave, after that stretches through the mid-year, and continuing into the year-end corridor, fusing IP strength, fresh ideas, and strategic calendar placement. Studios with streamers are embracing responsible budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that position the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has established itself as the most reliable lever in studio calendars, a corner that can spike when it resonates and still buffer the liability when it under-delivers. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that cost-conscious fright engines can shape cultural conversation, 2024 continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and surprise hits. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects signaled there is appetite for diverse approaches, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The combined impact for 2026 is a programming that presents tight coordination across the market, with intentional bunching, a combination of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a re-energized focus on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Executives say the horror lane now behaves like a plug-and-play option on the calendar. Horror can premiere on open real estate, yield a clean hook for previews and social clips, and outperform with audiences that show up on preview nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the release hits. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 pattern demonstrates faith in that model. The slate commences with a front-loaded January schedule, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a autumn push that connects to late October and into the next week. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and established properties. The players are not just producing another chapter. They are working to present connection with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a tonal shift or a star attachment that links a new entry to a heyday. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are returning to material texture, practical gags and concrete locations. That interplay delivers 2026 a solid mix of trust and newness, which is what works overseas.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a relay and a classic-mode character piece. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a roots-evoking mode without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, tragic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back creepy live activations and short reels that hybridizes affection and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a final title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are sold as event films, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led execution can feel big on a mid-range budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is marketing as a reset 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 focus to serve both fans and casuals. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by historical precision and linguistic texture, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is positive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after have a peek here a theater window then PVOD, a sequence that enhances both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the after-window. Prime Video will mix catalogue additions with global originals and brief theater runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival wins, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of focused cinema runs and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is tight: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the back half.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a ascendant talent. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the logic. In 2023, a theater-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The shop talk behind this slate point to a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that centers aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta-horror reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can thrive 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 cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited asset reveals Source that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate unfolds into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 abrasive boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting chiller that manipulates the fright of a child’s tricky read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set 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 flares, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in classic survival-horror tone over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 antique diction and primordial menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, controlled scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.