Primordial Terror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across top streamers

This haunting metaphysical fright fest from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric evil when outsiders become pawns in a dark contest. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of living through and archaic horror that will reconstruct scare flicks this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick fearfest follows five unknowns who regain consciousness sealed in a wooded house under the dark influence of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a big screen adventure that intertwines instinctive fear with timeless legends, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a long-standing foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer form from elsewhere, but rather from deep inside. This portrays the deepest corner of the victims. The result is a relentless internal warfare where the tension becomes a intense contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a bleak landscape, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the sinister rule and domination of a elusive female figure. As the protagonists becomes vulnerable to oppose her rule, marooned and chased by evils mind-shattering, they are obligated to face their raw vulnerabilities while the final hour coldly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and bonds dissolve, urging each soul to question their existence and the structure of personal agency itself. The hazard escalate with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges occult fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to draw upon elemental fright, an force born of forgotten ages, filtering through emotional fractures, and confronting a being that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that metamorphosis is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering fans no matter where they are can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original promo, which has garnered over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, giving access to the movie to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to face these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and alerts from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts blends myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from life-or-death fear saturated with legendary theology as well as franchise returns set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex paired with deliberate year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, in tandem streamers front-load the fall with fresh voices plus legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is propelled by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the other windows are mapped with care. The fall stretch is the proving field, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are intentional, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a headline swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written 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.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

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. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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.

Emerging Currents

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Fall crush plus winter X factor

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming terror calendar year ahead: returning titles, fresh concepts, as well as A Crowded Calendar engineered for screams

Dek The fresh genre season crowds in short order with a January cluster, subsequently flows through summer, and well into the festive period, braiding marquee clout, new voices, and data-minded counterprogramming. Studios and platforms are embracing tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that frame these releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the dependable release in annual schedules, a category that can surge when it lands and still limit the floor when it stumbles. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that efficiently budgeted horror vehicles can drive the zeitgeist, 2024 extended the rally with high-profile filmmaker pieces and unexpected risers. The momentum flowed into 2025, where re-entries and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is space for several lanes, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that travel well. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across companies, with clear date clusters, a balance of brand names and first-time concepts, and a sharpened commitment on theater exclusivity that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and platforms.

Executives say the category now serves as a fill-in ace on the slate. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, furnish a simple premise for marketing and social clips, and outstrip with moviegoers that lean in on preview nights and stick through the second weekend if the release satisfies. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup signals belief in that engine. The calendar launches with a loaded January run, then targets spring into early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The map also features the tightening integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can grow from platform, fuel WOM, and move wide at the strategic time.

Another broad trend is series management across linked properties and heritage properties. Distribution groups are not just making another chapter. They are aiming to frame lore continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a new tone or a casting choice that reconnects a next entry to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are prioritizing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That interplay gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and freshness, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount establishes early momentum with two prominent projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will go after large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an artificial companion that grows into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that interweaves affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s releases are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to saturate 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects treatment can feel high-value on a middle budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is positioning 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 longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by meticulous craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is positive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ladder that expands both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival additions, locking in horror entries closer to drop and framing as events premieres with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is Get More Info releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Expect 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 concert, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The operating solution is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the package is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps frame the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept streaming intact did not preclude a day-date move from working when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and grow 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The shop talk behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that emphasize razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

Annual flow

January is heavy. 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 moody palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month closes 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 stiff, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s intelligent companion evolves into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

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 encounter a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting narrative that frames the panic through a child’s shifting point of view. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-grade and name-above-title occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a fresh family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three hands-on forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-sequenced in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

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 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 press those advantages. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, 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 Is Well Positioned

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.