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

This blood-curdling paranormal suspense film from author / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old fear when unfamiliar people become subjects in a devilish maze. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of resilience and forgotten curse that will reconstruct terror storytelling this spooky time. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and emotionally thick story follows five people who find themselves stuck in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the dark power of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a antiquated biblical force. Steel yourself to be drawn in by a narrative ride that blends intense horror with ancestral stories, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the beings no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the haunting layer of the players. The result is a riveting mental war where the story becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a remote wild, five campers find themselves marooned under the evil influence and curse of a obscure female presence. As the companions becomes powerless to combat her rule, exiled and preyed upon by presences unfathomable, they are thrust to encounter their core terrors while the doomsday meter mercilessly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion escalates and teams break, pushing each character to rethink their personhood and the idea of independent thought itself. The risk mount with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that fuses supernatural terror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to awaken pure dread, an force before modern man, filtering through mental cracks, and navigating a will that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the entity awakens, and that turn is emotionally raw because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving customers internationally can get immersed in this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, 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.


Experience this bone-rattling journey into fear. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these fearful discoveries about the soul.


For sneak peeks, production news, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across your socials and visit the official website.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. calendar weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, set against series shake-ups

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with biblical myth through to legacy revivals paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most variegated in tandem with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors stabilize the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously streaming platforms saturate the fall with unboxed visions as well as scriptural shivers. In parallel, the artisan tier is propelled by the echoes of a peak 2024 circuit. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, the WB camp drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, 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 posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

What to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new fright calendar year ahead: Sequels, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The new genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently stretches through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, original angles, and well-timed calendar placement. The major players are prioritizing efficient budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and short-form initiatives that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The field has emerged as the steady release in release strategies, a corner that can scale when it connects and still hedge the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to leaders that lean-budget chillers can drive social chatter, 2024 held pace with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries underscored there is space for varied styles, from returning installments to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The end result for 2026 is a roster that reads highly synchronized across studios, with strategic blocks, a blend of household franchises and new concepts, and a sharpened attention on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now performs as a utility player on the grid. Horror can bow on many corridors, generate a quick sell for trailers and short-form placements, and exceed norms with fans that appear on first-look nights and keep coming through the second frame if the picture delivers. Post a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 cadence signals certainty in that engine. The year opens with a heavy January window, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a September to October window that connects to the Halloween corridor and into early November. The map also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and roll out at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Studios are not just turning out another continuation. They are working to present lineage with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a star attachment that threads a next film to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the helmers behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing material texture, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence gives the 2026 slate a solid mix of brand comfort and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a origin-leaning character-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a throwback-friendly strategy without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by classic imagery, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that grows into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to replay odd public stunts and quick hits that interlaces companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an earned moment closer to the initial promo. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are set up as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Look for a blood-soaked summer horror surge that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates 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 reboots in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by careful craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ordering that elevates both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video will mix library titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using timely promos, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on overall cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival pickups, securing horror entries near their drops and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with prestige directors or star-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Be ready for 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 in parallel, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, 2026 leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The standing approach is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto Check This Out itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is familiar enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not block a parallel release from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror point to a continued bias toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature execution and sets, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. 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 bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Year-end 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, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s artificial companion escalates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 unyielding boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order flips and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that refracts terror through a young child’s flickering personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-scale and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family caught in residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. 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 period-precise speech and primal menace. Rating: TBD. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 low-to-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.