Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A bone-chilling unearthly suspense story from author / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old force when unfamiliar people become victims in a malevolent game. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing depiction of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will reimagine horror this fall. Directed by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody suspense flick follows five teens who snap to stuck in a remote hideaway under the oppressive influence of Kyra, a haunted figure dominated by a millennia-old biblical force. Brace yourself to be gripped by a big screen ride that weaves together raw fear with biblical origins, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is twisted when the dark entities no longer originate beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the most hidden dimension of the protagonists. The result is a relentless identity crisis where the events becomes a soul-crushing fight between heaven and hell.


In a forsaken no-man's-land, five youths find themselves cornered under the fiendish control and spiritual invasion of a haunted entity. As the companions becomes unable to fight her manipulation, left alone and attacked by powers unnamable, they are obligated to encounter their soulful dreads while the deathwatch unceasingly ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and partnerships collapse, urging each participant to doubt their identity and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The danger grow with every minute, delivering a terror ride that fuses occult fear with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into deep fear, an darkness that predates humanity, influencing emotional fractures, and examining a curse that challenges autonomy when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is innocent until the spirit seizes her, and that flip is shocking because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering households in all regions can engage with this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its intro video, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Experience this visceral voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For previews, extra content, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: the 2025 season U.S. Slate fuses archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

From pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in biblical myth as well as IP renewals in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most stratified plus blueprinted year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. the big studios are anchoring the year by way of signature titles, as OTT services load up the fall with debut heat plus old-world menace. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is carried on the carry from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are precise, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. With Leigh Whannell at the helm anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, 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.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror ascends again
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 new fear calendar year ahead: brand plays, new stories, alongside A Crowded Calendar tailored for goosebumps

Dek The incoming scare year clusters from the jump with a January glut, after that spreads through midyear, and continuing into the holidays, marrying legacy muscle, creative pitches, and savvy counter-scheduling. The big buyers and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that shape these films into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has emerged as the steady swing in studio lineups, a vertical that can spike when it breaks through and still insulate the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured leaders that mid-range scare machines can drive the national conversation, the following year held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is a market for several lanes, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a schedule that shows rare alignment across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted focus on theatrical windows that feed downstream value on premium digital and digital services.

Schedulers say the genre now behaves like a swing piece on the distribution slate. Horror can premiere on most weekends, yield a grabby hook for trailers and shorts, and over-index with patrons that respond on advance nights and stay strong through the week two if the title pays off. Emerging from a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 setup signals belief in that engine. The calendar launches with a crowded January corridor, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a autumn stretch that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and into post-Halloween. The grid also includes the deeper integration of indie arms and platforms that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across interlocking continuities and classic IP. Studios are not just rolling another follow-up. They are shaping as lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that flags a recalibrated tone or a casting move that bridges a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring real-world builds, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That mix offers 2026 a solid mix of home base and newness, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount plants an early flag with two high-profile titles that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a handoff and a rootsy character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture hints at a throwback-friendly approach without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive centered on signature symbols, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever rules the discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is crisp, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that grows into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to reprise uncanny live moments and bite-size content that threads longing and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects aesthetic can feel prestige on a lean spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can increase large-format demand and fandom activation.

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 builds on Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by careful craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival snaps, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with prestige directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Watch for 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 mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By count, 2026 leans in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to sell each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is centering character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add 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, features Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the packaging is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not block a day-date move from delivering when the brand was potent. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they pivot perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries signal a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights creep and texture rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta-horror reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid larger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited plot reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genes. 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 devastated man’s intelligent companion turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command tilts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 residential haunting tale that interrogates the dread of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and A-list fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 breaks out, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. 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-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from useful reference test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lean-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 shock 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand equity where it matters, filmmaker vision 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.