Primordial Dread Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling feature, premiering Oct 2025 on top digital platforms

One bone-chilling supernatural thriller from creator / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial horror when unrelated individuals become proxies in a satanic game. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping journey of continuance and prehistoric entity that will transform the fear genre this spooky time. Guided by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody feature follows five young adults who emerge trapped in a hidden dwelling under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Get ready to be hooked by a cinematic spectacle that blends gut-punch terror with legendary tales, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the monsters no longer arise from an outside force, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the most primal aspect of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the narrative becomes a perpetual struggle between heaven and hell.


In a bleak natural abyss, five campers find themselves imprisoned under the possessive effect and spiritual invasion of a mysterious character. As the youths becomes paralyzed to combat her will, abandoned and followed by unknowns beyond reason, they are obligated to deal with their inner demons while the hours harrowingly strikes toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and ties shatter, pressuring each member to doubt their identity and the idea of volition itself. The intensity surge with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to draw upon core terror, an presence rooted in antiquity, working through emotional fractures, and examining a will that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was about accessing something far beyond human desperation. She is uninformed until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is soul-crushing because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving audiences internationally can get immersed in this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, spreading the horror to a global viewership.


Mark your calendar for this gripping journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to face these chilling revelations about free will.


For bonus footage, extra content, and announcements from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Today’s horror inflection point: the 2025 season American release plan braids together myth-forward possession, festival-born jolts, plus returning-series thunder

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with biblical myth and stretching into series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the genre’s most multifaceted together with blueprinted year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios plant stakes across the year with established lines, simultaneously streamers crowd the fall with discovery plays and ancient terrors. In the indie lane, independent banners is surfing the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. timed for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, Warner’s slate launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: old school creep, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, 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 second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Conceived and directed 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into 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.

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 is canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No series drag. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. 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 gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

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. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The next spook slate: continuations, original films, together with A busy Calendar engineered for chills

Dek The fresh scare season lines up from the jump with a January cluster, from there carries through the summer months, and straight through the December corridor, braiding IP strength, untold stories, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that convert these pictures into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has shown itself to be the bankable tool in distribution calendars, a genre that can spike when it connects and still safeguard the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that modestly budgeted fright engines can own cultural conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The tailwind carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects highlighted there is space for a spectrum, from returning installments to fresh IP that carry overseas. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the market, with obvious clusters, a equilibrium of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a refocused commitment on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium digital and streaming.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a wildcard on the programming map. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, generate a easy sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and outperform with audiences that show up on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the feature hits. Emerging from a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup exhibits conviction in that logic. The year begins with a thick January run, then uses spring and early summer for alternate plays, while keeping space for a September to October window that carries into late October and past the holiday. The map also spotlights the greater integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and grow at the right moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across shared universes and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just pushing another installment. They are setting up threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a next film to a heyday. At the same time, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing physical effects work, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing offers 2026 a confident blend of comfort and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a relay and a origin-leaning character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a throwback-friendly strategy without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with franchise iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, see here a headline the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick pivots to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is efficient, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man adopts an synthetic partner that escalates into a murderous partner. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit creepy live activations and quick hits that threads devotion and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are framed as creative events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led mix can feel premium on a tight budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror blast that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is describing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can lift premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and sign-up momentum in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix licensed content with worldwide buys and brief theater runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using editorial spots, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to launch and turning into events rollouts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with award winners or name-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a theatrical rollout for the title, an good sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to market each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-flavored turn from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that honored streaming windows did not block a simultaneous release test from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued tilt toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature work and production design, which match well with fan conventions and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is full. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid larger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss struggle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that pipes the unease through a little one’s unreliable POV. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces organize this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle 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 leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Anticipate a robust 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.