Antediluvian Dread rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

One blood-curdling spectral fear-driven tale from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an age-old entity when passersby become puppets in a supernatural struggle. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching narrative of resilience and prehistoric entity that will remodel genre cinema this scare season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and gothic story follows five unknowns who suddenly rise sealed in a unreachable shack under the malignant power of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a timeless scriptural evil. Arm yourself to be shaken by a immersive display that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic concept in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is inverted when the malevolences no longer appear beyond the self, but rather deep within. This illustrates the darkest shade of these individuals. The result is a intense mental war where the tension becomes a intense confrontation between moral forces.


In a remote forest, five young people find themselves imprisoned under the malicious sway and possession of a enigmatic entity. As the team becomes incapacitated to withstand her rule, abandoned and targeted by evils inconceivable, they are required to acknowledge their worst nightmares while the clock relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion swells and alliances collapse, compelling each survivor to reconsider their character and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The hazard climb with every tick, delivering a fear-soaked story that harmonizes unearthly horror with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to evoke deep fear, an spirit beyond time, influencing our weaknesses, and navigating a presence that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra was about accessing something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the takeover begins, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering customers around the globe can be part of this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has collected over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Witness this cinematic descent into darkness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to see these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For featurettes, special features, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across platforms and visit the movie portal.





The horror genre’s Turning Point: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts interlaces myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, alongside tentpole growls

From survivor-centric dread saturated with primordial scripture through to canon extensions in concert with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified and tactically planned year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, even as OTT services crowd the fall with emerging auteurs in concert with archetypal fear. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is buoyed by the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are intentional, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. From director Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma as theme, with ghostly inner logic. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, reaching teens and game grownups. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Digital Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

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

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

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.

Theaters are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare lineup: continuations, standalone ideas, in tandem with A loaded Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The current genre slate crowds at the outset with a January logjam, following that flows through the mid-year, and carrying into the holidays, weaving marquee clout, new concepts, and smart calendar placement. Studios and platforms are leaning into mid-range economics, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that pivot horror entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has established itself as the steady counterweight in studio slates, a lane that can accelerate when it catches and still safeguard the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year showed leaders that cost-conscious pictures can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 maintained heat with director-led heat and unexpected risers. The momentum flowed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films proved there is an opening for several lanes, from brand follow-ups to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The aggregate for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across distributors, with planned clusters, a blend of established brands and novel angles, and a tightened priority on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on premium home window and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the category now operates like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can launch on most weekends, supply a clear pitch for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and overperform with viewers that show up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the week two if the picture satisfies. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern telegraphs trust in that dynamic. The year launches with a stacked January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a autumn stretch that reaches into spooky season and beyond. The map also shows the ongoing integration of specialized labels and streamers that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the timely point.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and heritage properties. The companies are not just producing another next film. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a talent selection that ties a incoming chapter to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the most watched originals are returning to practical craft, on-set effects and grounded locations. That fusion yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of known notes and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount establishes early momentum with two marquee plays that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a fan-service aware campaign without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave stacked with legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man sets up an artificial companion that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short-form creative that interweaves affection and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links 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, prosthetic-heavy treatment can feel high-value on a middle budget. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror shot that leans hard into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both devotees and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around narrative world, and monster design, elements that can fuel premium format interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on minute detail and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is positive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that fortifies both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video stitches together library titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using featured rows, fright rows, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and staging as events premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 track 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 sell is straightforward: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has served the company well for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception merits. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The challenge, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set help explain the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre point to a continued turn toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like 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 lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 legit, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores 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 flows 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 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that put concept first.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new this page Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s machine mate becomes something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 severe boss scramble to survive on a desolate island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that filters its scares through a preteen’s unsteady point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A parody return that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set 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 flares, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further widens again, with a different family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: active. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why this year, why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or rearranged in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed timelines. 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror navigate to this website varieties will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on news 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 cost-efficient 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, 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 tactility, sonics, 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.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.