Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This chilling metaphysical nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval fear when foreigners become pawns in a cursed contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching tale of endurance and timeless dread that will reshape the horror genre this fall. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five young adults who find themselves stuck in a cut-off structure under the ominous dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl haunted by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be gripped by a audio-visual display that combines deep-seated panic with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the spirits no longer come from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This suggests the most hidden corner of the victims. The result is a relentless mind game where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing battle between moral forces.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five teens find themselves confined under the unholy control and domination of a unknown female figure. As the victims becomes unresisting to fight her grasp, marooned and followed by forces unfathomable, they are forced to stand before their inner horrors while the hours without pity pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and partnerships implode, pushing each participant to question their being and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The risk climb with every breath, delivering a chilling narrative that merges otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into basic terror, an evil that existed before mankind, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and highlighting a spirit that strips down our being when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the invasion happens, and that change is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure audiences anywhere can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first trailer, which has racked up over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to explore these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For teasers, production news, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar braids together old-world possession, signature indie scares, set against Franchise Rumbles

Running from survival horror inspired by legendary theology and onward to series comebacks alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most stratified paired with strategic year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lock in tentpoles with known properties, while streamers stack the fall with emerging auteurs and scriptural shivers. On another front, the independent cohort is drafting behind the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are calculated, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s pipeline leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. timed for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Streamer Exclusives: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a sealed box body horror arc with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

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

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 approaching chiller slate: continuations, new stories, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror calendar loads immediately with a January crush, then carries through the summer months, and running into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded offsets. Distributors with platforms are committing to mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that shape genre releases into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has proven to be the most reliable tool in programming grids, a genre that can break out when it catches and still safeguard the drawdown when it does not. After 2023 showed greenlighters that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can lead the national conversation, 2024 held pace with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing translated to 2025, where resurrections and awards-minded projects proved there is a market for a spectrum, from returning installments to director-led originals that travel well. The result for 2026 is a calendar that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with clear date clusters, a pairing of known properties and original hooks, and a re-energized priority on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a swing piece on the rollout map. Horror can bow on numerous frames, provide a quick sell for marketing and shorts, and punch above weight with audiences that appear on opening previews and hold through the sophomore frame if the release delivers. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates confidence in that engine. The slate begins with a weighty January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while clearing room for a fall corridor that pushes into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The grid also features the increasing integration of specialized imprints and streamers that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and broaden at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is IP cultivation across ongoing universes and classic IP. The companies are not just making another continuation. They are moving to present ongoing narrative with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting choice that connects a new installment to a first wave. At the concurrently, the writer-directors behind the marquee originals are embracing tactile craft, in-camera effects and distinct locales. That pairing hands the 2026 slate a vital pairing of home base and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the front, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a nostalgia-forward angle without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan arriving in 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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will play up. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man implements an machine companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that fuses devotion and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are positioned as signature events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to maximize 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, practical-effects forward approach can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is positioning as a fresh restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror driven by rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The label has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is glowing.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a stair-step that boosts both first-week urgency and sub growth in the downstream. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and collection rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about originals and festival grabs, dating horror entries tight to release and framing as events rollouts with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star 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’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized navigate to this website lanes

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, modernized for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception prompts. Do not be surprised by 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 precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds 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 lensed sequentially, permits marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued preference for 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 matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and generates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which favor convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Annual flow

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner grows into something perilously amorous. 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

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 face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss push to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that mediates the fear via a preteen’s volatile perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBA. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on social-ready stingers from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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 strong PLF footprints 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 value-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 sleeper overperformer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, this page and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundscape, and framing 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.