Primeval Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a bone chilling chiller, premiering Oct 2025 on major platforms

A blood-curdling occult thriller from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an long-buried force when newcomers become vehicles in a hellish trial. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing portrayal of perseverance and archaic horror that will revamp terror storytelling this October. Produced by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic tale follows five young adults who wake up isolated in a cut-off house under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a two-thousand-year-old holy text monster. Be prepared to be ensnared by a theatrical experience that merges gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic narrative in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is challenged when the fiends no longer descend from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the haunting version of the group. The result is a enthralling mental war where the intensity becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between innocence and sin.


In a isolated no-man's-land, five friends find themselves imprisoned under the sinister effect and control of a unknown figure. As the survivors becomes unresisting to resist her will, isolated and tormented by forces unimaginable, they are pushed to confront their inner horrors while the timeline ruthlessly runs out toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and ties break, coercing each soul to examine their self and the principle of independent thought itself. The consequences intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges ghostly evil with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to draw upon elemental fright, an entity older than civilization itself, emerging via psychological breaks, and wrestling with a entity that forces self-examination when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant evoking something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering users from coast to coast can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its original promo, which has racked up over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Avoid skipping this haunted voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these fearful discoveries about existence.


For teasers, set experiences, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit the official website.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: calendar year 2025 American release plan fuses biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, alongside tentpole growls

From survival horror infused with primordial scripture all the way to legacy revivals together with incisive indie visions, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered along with blueprinted year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, as subscription platforms load up the fall with debut heat together with mythic dread. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, which means 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. 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. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, 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 opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, steered by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming scare year to come: continuations, Originals, in tandem with A busy Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare year builds from the jump with a January traffic jam, then flows through summer, and carrying into the winter holidays, fusing IP strength, fresh ideas, and calculated calendar placement. Major distributors and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the most reliable swing in release plans, a category that can break out when it breaks through and still hedge the losses when it stumbles. After 2023 signaled to top brass that disciplined-budget scare machines can own audience talk, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and surprise hits. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that appears tightly organized across studios, with defined corridors, a equilibrium of familiar brands and novel angles, and a recommitted focus on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium rental and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the genre now works like a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can premiere on many corridors, yield a grabby hook for promo reels and social clips, and outstrip with patrons that lean in on Thursday previews and continue through the week two if the entry hits. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern signals certainty in that engine. The slate opens with a heavy January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a fall corridor that reaches into late October and into November. The schedule also features the ongoing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and grow at the right moment.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just releasing another continuation. They are trying to present continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a new tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a upcoming film to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are returning to in-camera technique, real effects and vivid settings. That fusion hands the 2026 slate a solid mix of recognition and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two prominent projects that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, positioning the film as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a legacy-leaning bent without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push built on legacy iconography, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots 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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that evolves into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with the Source Universal machine likely to echo uncanny live moments and snackable content that mixes love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film this page secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to maximize 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects strategy can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, carrying a evergreen supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is marketing as a new foundation 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 focus to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around canon, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror driven by rigorous craft and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a sequence that maximizes both FOMO and subscription bumps in the late-window. Prime Video pairs library titles with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to stretch the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival wins, scheduling horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of precision releases and fast windowing that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through select festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using boutique theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The risk, as ever, is brand wear. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the assembly is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a hybrid test from working when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without dead zones.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind this year’s genre foreshadow a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta refresh that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which play well in expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month caps 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 real, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

End of summer through fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s virtual companion shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric 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 abrasive boss try to survive on a rugged island as the control balance flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 renewed take that returns the monster to dread, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 household haunting story that leverages the horror of a child’s uncertain read. Rating: TBD. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-built and star-fronted occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that targets of-the-moment horror beats and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: not yet rated. 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: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: horror Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends 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 pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

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

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, 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 gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined 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 detail, sonics, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand heft where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.