Ancient Evil reawakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, rolling out Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An frightening ghostly fear-driven tale from author / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten malevolence when strangers become subjects in a cursed contest. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of overcoming and old world terror that will transform horror this cool-weather season. Helmed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric story follows five people who find themselves caught in a off-grid cottage under the aggressive grip of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a legendary biblical demon. Be prepared to be captivated by a narrative venture that weaves together visceral dread with arcane tradition, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the forces no longer develop outside the characters, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the most sinister version of these individuals. The result is a relentless cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a unforgiving conflict between right and wrong.


In a abandoned outland, five characters find themselves imprisoned under the unholy presence and inhabitation of a secretive figure. As the survivors becomes helpless to combat her rule, marooned and attacked by unknowns indescribable, they are pushed to confront their darkest emotions while the final hour brutally edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and bonds dissolve, demanding each figure to rethink their true nature and the principle of autonomy itself. The hazard mount with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that fuses occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to extract instinctual horror, an curse that existed before mankind, filtering through inner turmoil, and challenging a will that strips down our being when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was about accessing something unfamiliar to reason. She is blind until the possession kicks in, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—offering subscribers across the world can witness this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this soul-jarring descent into darkness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these dark realities about the human condition.


For director insights, director cuts, and press updates from behind the lens, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate melds archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, together with returning-series thunder

Running from endurance-driven terror steeped in biblical myth through to returning series plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted combined with deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors stabilize the year via recognizable brands, in tandem streamers front-load the fall with fresh voices together with ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is carried on the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a bold swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma as theme, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed 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 hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No heavy handed lore. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. 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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Badges become bargaining chips
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, alongside A loaded Calendar optimized for frights

Dek The brand-new genre year builds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then spreads through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are committing to smart costs, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that frame horror entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has become the steady move in programming grids, a pillar that can grow when it hits and still protect the downside when it does not. After the 2023 year reassured strategy teams that efficiently budgeted scare machines can galvanize mainstream conversation, the following year continued the surge with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects showed there is an opening for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across studios, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and new packages, and a sharpened eye on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now slots in as a fill-in ace on the programming map. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, offer a easy sell for marketing and TikTok spots, and over-index with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and hold through the sophomore frame if the entry satisfies. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 cadence demonstrates trust in that approach. The slate gets underway with a weighty January block, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a September to October window that pushes into Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also underscores the greater integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and widen at the precise moment.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just producing another follow-up. They are setting up story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that signals a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that connects a upcoming film to a classic era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to practical craft, physical gags and site-specific worlds. That mix affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and invention, which is the formula for international play.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight pushes that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character piece. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward treatment without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with iconic art, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

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 hook the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build general-audience talk through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is elegant, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an algorithmic mate that turns into a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit odd public stunts and bite-size content that threads devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are marketed as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway gives the studio room to maximize 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both launch urgency and sign-up spikes in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together library titles with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to maximize the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival buys, slotting horror entries near their drops and making event-like rollouts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track 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 tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a traditional cinema play for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the September weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The near-term solution is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-inflected take from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the bundle is recognizable enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Comps from the last three years outline the method. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that maintained windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from winning when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 entries hint at a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which fit with convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. 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 bigger brand plays. The month finishes 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 thick, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, anchored by Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that frames the panic through a little one’s uneven inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a different family snared by ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental dread. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: this website The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 work those windows. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

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

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, soundscape, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.