Antediluvian Evil Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

An eerie unearthly nightmare movie from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic dread when unknowns become victims in a demonic contest. Premiering this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of endurance and primordial malevolence that will revamp scare flicks this October. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody film follows five young adults who suddenly rise sealed in a far-off wooden structure under the sinister sway of Kyra, a possessed female occupied by a 2,000-year-old religious nightmare. Be warned to be gripped by a big screen display that blends bodily fright with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a recurring foundation in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the demons no longer come from beyond, but rather within themselves. This embodies the most hidden facet of each of them. The result is a bone-chilling psychological battle where the narrative becomes a unforgiving conflict between light and darkness.


In a abandoned landscape, five campers find themselves caught under the ghastly force and spiritual invasion of a haunted female figure. As the companions becomes unable to deny her control, abandoned and hunted by creatures ungraspable, they are obligated to confront their soulful dreads while the seconds unforgivingly pushes forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and partnerships fracture, pushing each individual to rethink their essence and the idea of free will itself. The hazard climb with every heartbeat, delivering a fear-soaked story that intertwines demonic fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract primitive panic, an darkness born of forgotten ages, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and exposing a curse that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that turn is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering fans worldwide can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original promo, which has earned over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to confront these unholy truths about the human condition.


For director insights, extra content, and social posts from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit our spooky domain.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle American release plan blends archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, stacked beside returning-series thunder

Across life-or-death fear rooted in ancient scripture and stretching into IP renewals and sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated as well as blueprinted year in the past ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios bookend the months using marquee IP, concurrently premium streamers front-load the fall with emerging auteurs paired with scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, the independent cohort is riding the kinetic energy of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, the Warner lot releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: nostalgic menace, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: 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

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

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

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

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 battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The 2026 fear cycle: entries, universe starters, together with A Crowded Calendar aimed at screams

Dek The emerging terror cycle stacks in short order with a January logjam, after that extends through midyear, and well into the holidays, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and smart alternatives. Distributors with platforms are committing to lean spends, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that shape the slate’s entries into cross-demo moments.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The horror marketplace has become the steady lever in studio lineups, a space that can accelerate when it breaks through and still hedge the downside when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reassured executives that responsibly budgeted chillers can dominate the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The momentum carried into 2025, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is space for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to original features that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across distributors, with strategic blocks, a blend of brand names and novel angles, and a sharpened focus on cinema windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now serves as a utility player on the calendar. The genre can premiere on virtually any date, create a clear pitch for creative and TikTok spots, and over-index with ticket buyers that lean in on preview nights and stick through the second weekend if the entry fires. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout underscores faith in that engine. The calendar begins with a thick January window, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a fall corridor that carries into Halloween and past the holiday. The grid also illustrates the continuing integration of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and roll out at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across linked properties and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just rolling another return. They are seeking to position connection with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that indicates a refreshed voice or a casting choice that connects a next entry to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the creative leads behind the eagerly awaited originals are doubling down on hands-on technique, in-camera effects and specific settings. That convergence offers the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount leads early with two spotlight titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a baton pass and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a throwback-friendly angle without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout stacked with heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is simple, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an AI companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay strange in-person beats and quick hits that fuses companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His projects are treated as marquee events, with a opaque teaser and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The prime October weekend offers Universal room to command 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, hands-on effects mix can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Expect a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

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 advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about in-house releases and festival pickups, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and speedy platforming 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 direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 pipeline with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception supports. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate franchise value. The question, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January news 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years outline the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a parallel release from hitting when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries signal a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-true language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker Source that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. 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 bereaved man’s machine mate shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to horror, built on Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 story that manipulates the unease of a child’s inconsistent point of view. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-built and celebrity-led paranormal suspense.

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 comic send-up that skewers of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBA. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 bursts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

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

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.