Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

This blood-curdling otherworldly terror film from cinematographer / director Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an timeless horror when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a diabolical contest. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of continuance and primordial malevolence that will transform terror storytelling this scare season. Guided by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic story follows five figures who are stirred ensnared in a far-off house under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a prehistoric biblical force. Be warned to be drawn in by a narrative journey that blends bodily fright with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the monsters no longer form from external sources, but rather inside them. This depicts the grimmest dimension of the victims. The result is a emotionally raw mental war where the drama becomes a relentless tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a remote wild, five campers find themselves marooned under the evil dominion and spiritual invasion of a haunted entity. As the group becomes unresisting to reject her will, severed and pursued by creatures unfathomable, they are made to battle their raw vulnerabilities while the countdown without pity counts down toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and ties dissolve, forcing each participant to scrutinize their self and the idea of liberty itself. The risk surge with every beat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that blends mystical fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to draw upon primitive panic, an darkness beyond recorded history, emerging via emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a darkness that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something past sanity. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is harrowing because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users everywhere can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, giving access to the movie to thrill-seekers globally.


Do not miss this soul-jarring descent into hell. Face *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these haunting secrets about existence.


For featurettes, production news, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 season U.S. lineup weaves biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with mythic scripture as well as series comebacks plus focused festival visions, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with discovery plays together with old-world menace. Meanwhile, horror’s indie wing is carried on the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are methodical, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

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

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with a statement play: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: throwback unease, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It drops in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

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 With Depth: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing 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 Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The coming 2026 Horror cycle: continuations, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek: The new genre season lines up from the jump with a January pile-up, after that flows through the summer months, and continuing into the holidays, marrying legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into lean spends, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that shape these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This space has turned into the predictable move in studio calendars, a segment that can expand when it resonates and still cushion the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can command cultural conversation, 2024 extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries made clear there is an opening for many shades, from brand follow-ups to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across companies, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of legacy names and original hooks, and a renewed commitment on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now functions as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can bow on virtually any date, offer a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and outpace with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the movie hits. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects certainty in that approach. The calendar opens with a weighty January run, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a September to October window that carries into the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The arrangement also highlights the continuing integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and move wide at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and classic IP. The companies are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are looking to package lore continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that flags a refreshed voice or a casting choice that binds a next film to a initial period. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are prioritizing on-set craft, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That mix gives 2026 a solid mix of trust and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket pushes that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, angling it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach telegraphs a fan-service aware bent without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave stacked with iconic art, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will emphasize. As a summer relief option, this one will drive large awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads horror talk useful reference that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, grief-rooted, and commercial: a grieving man sets up an intelligent companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that threads intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under code 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 proper title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. The filmmaker’s films are set up as signature events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend gives the studio room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has long shown that a visceral, on-set effects led mix can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror surge that centers international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a evergreen supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is framing as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around canon, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on historical precision and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that enhances both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video will mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to keep attention on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to drop and staging as events releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring 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 proposition is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By volume, the 2026 slate leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness name recognition. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to leave creative active without long gaps.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries signal a continued tilt toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature and environment design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid larger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s 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 clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 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: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss claw to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s in-camera craft and accumulating 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 family-home haunting story that plays with the fear of a child’s uncertain impressions. Rating: TBA. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new clan tethered to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: closely held. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work 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 Looks Exciting

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.