Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

This terrifying mystic shockfest from narrative craftsman / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval entity when newcomers become tokens in a dark game. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing tale of struggle and forgotten curse that will revolutionize genre cinema this ghoul season. Helmed by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and claustrophobic screenplay follows five young adults who come to isolated in a off-grid dwelling under the dark grip of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a timeless ancient fiend. Get ready to be absorbed by a cinematic event that merges instinctive fear with timeless legends, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a recurring pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the malevolences no longer develop from beyond, but rather deep within. This depicts the malevolent dimension of the victims. The result is a enthralling spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a constant battle between virtue and vice.


In a haunting backcountry, five campers find themselves sealed under the sinister aura and haunting of a shadowy spirit. As the group becomes paralyzed to deny her curse, stranded and attacked by forces inconceivable, they are cornered to stand before their soulful dreads while the final hour unceasingly pushes forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and relationships collapse, pushing each member to reflect on their true nature and the principle of freedom of choice itself. The threat mount with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken elemental fright, an darkness beyond recorded history, filtering through human fragility, and dealing with a force that forces self-examination when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is in denial until the control shifts, and that transition is emotionally raw because it is so private.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing watchers from coast to coast can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its intro video, which has earned over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to global fright lovers.


Witness this cinematic journey into fear. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to confront these spiritual awakenings about human nature.


For bonus footage, special features, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup Mixes legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, plus IP aftershocks

Across life-or-death fear saturated with ancient scripture all the way to IP renewals together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become horror’s most layered and carefully orchestrated year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. the big studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, concurrently SVOD players stack the fall with debut heat together with archetypal fear. Meanwhile, the art-house flank is drafting behind the backdraft of a peak 2024 circuit. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal begins the calendar with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed 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.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

At summer’s close, the Warner lot drops the final chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma explicitly handled, with spooky supernatural reasoning. The ante is higher this round, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It looks like sharp programming. No overstuffed canon. No brand fatigue. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror comes roaring back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The forthcoming 2026 genre lineup: entries, standalone ideas, and also A brimming Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The incoming terror cycle builds from the jump with a January logjam, from there unfolds through midyear, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, untold stories, and smart counterweight. Studios and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and viral-minded pushes that transform genre titles into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the steady lever in release plans, a space that can spike when it catches and still hedge the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget scare machines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year kept energy high with auteur-driven buzzy films and quiet over-performers. The head of steam flowed into the 2025 frame, where returns and prestige plays showed there is a market for several lanes, from series extensions to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across companies, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of brand names and original hooks, and a reinvigorated stance on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on PVOD and platforms.

Executives say the genre now performs as a fill-in ace on the rollout map. Horror can launch on nearly any frame, yield a sharp concept for marketing and shorts, and overperform with patrons that turn out on preview nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the film fires. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern exhibits belief in that approach. The slate begins with a crowded January window, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while saving space for a fall cadence that runs into the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The calendar also highlights the ongoing integration of boutique distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and legacy IP. The studios are not just producing another entry. They are setting up ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a new tone or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a classic era. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the marquee originals are favoring practical craft, practical effects and location-forward worlds. That blend gives the 2026 slate a healthy mix of trust and invention, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount fires first with two prominent releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a roots-evoking approach without covering again the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign rooted in signature symbols, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 angle the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will build mass reach through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that grows into a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interlaces attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are set up as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven approach can feel top-tier on a controlled budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror rush that centers offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a reliable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both week-one demand and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and programmed rows to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival deals, timing horror entries closer to drop and staging as events go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise Young & Cursed is no-nonsense: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, elevated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception encourages. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not deter a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and elevate scope. 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and artisan spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease useful reference that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and generates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which align with fan-con activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel this content compelling. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

How the year maps out

January is jammed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect 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.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns 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 devastated man’s algorithmic partner becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss work to survive on a desolate island as the power dynamic upends and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that channels the fear through a young child’s wavering inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 erupts, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family anchored to lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 elemental menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 exploit those windows. 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. 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 beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, 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 grain, acoustics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is recognizable IP where it plays, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the screams sell the seats.