Age-old Horror surfaces: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

An hair-raising occult nightmare movie from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless malevolence when unrelated individuals become victims in a demonic maze. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful narrative of survival and ancient evil that will redefine the horror genre this fall. Created by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and claustrophobic fearfest follows five teens who wake up stranded in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the dark control of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a time-worn holy text monster. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a visual outing that melds primitive horror with folklore, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay tradition in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reversed when the monsters no longer form outside their bodies, but rather inside them. This embodies the most primal facet of the cast. The result is a bone-chilling inner struggle where the events becomes a brutal confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a remote landscape, five youths find themselves stuck under the possessive control and grasp of a enigmatic female figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to resist her command, cut off and attacked by unknowns mind-shattering, they are thrust to battle their core terrors while the clock without pity draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and bonds fracture, compelling each character to scrutinize their self and the structure of personal agency itself. The cost mount with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that connects otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to draw upon primitive panic, an darkness born of forgotten ages, filtering through soul-level flaws, and exposing a darkness that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra involved tapping into something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that pivot is haunting because it is so visceral.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering households around the globe can engage with this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original promo, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to horror fans worldwide.


Avoid skipping this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these fearful discoveries about inner darkness.


For previews, on-set glimpses, and updates from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, stacked beside franchise surges

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with ancient scripture as well as legacy revivals and pointed art-house angles, 2025 is emerging as the most complex as well as deliberate year of the last decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios bookend the months with familiar IP, while subscription platforms load up the fall with unboxed visions in concert with mythic dread. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is propelled by the momentum of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, and 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s slate sets the tone with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the memorable motifs return: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
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
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward screams

Dek The emerging scare slate packs immediately with a January cluster, thereafter stretches through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, balancing brand heft, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has grown into the surest release in studio slates, a segment that can break out when it breaks through and still cushion the losses when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught top brass that lean-budget chillers can drive audience talk, 2024 maintained heat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The tailwind fed into 2025, where resurrections and prestige plays signaled there is appetite for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to original features that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across companies, with intentional bunching, a mix of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated focus on cinema windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now works like a utility player on the schedule. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, offer a quick sell for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and outperform with fans that appear on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the movie connects. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm underscores comfort in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January window, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that flows toward the Halloween corridor and beyond. The schedule also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and OTT outlets that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and broaden at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and heritage properties. The studios are not just releasing another sequel. They are looking to package story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a new vibe or a ensemble decision that binds a next film to a initial period. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two marquee releases that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-forward chapter. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture indicates a heritage-honoring campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push built on franchise iconography, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever shapes the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that mutates into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to bring back uncanny live moments and quick hits that interweaves companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an PR pop closer to the initial tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are sold as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, practical-first style can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror rush that maximizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign this page creative around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can lift large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in immersive craft and archaic language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The specialty arm has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate flow to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library engagement, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and curated strips to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with award winners or star-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly activity when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting 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 proposition is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, updated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Series vs standalone

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that maintained windows did not block a day-date move from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that spotlights aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which match well with fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons 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 meaningful, but the spread of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy reframes 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 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor 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 scores with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production rolls. 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 reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s virtual companion becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting narrative that interrogates the dread of a child’s inconsistent perceptions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led spirit-world suspense.

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 satire sequel that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family lashed to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. 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.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, 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 surface detail, sound, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is IP strength 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell the seats.