Ancient Malevolence returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streaming platforms

An blood-curdling ghostly fear-driven tale from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless nightmare when strangers become vehicles in a cursed maze. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of overcoming and archaic horror that will transform fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Realized by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and emotionally thick fearfest follows five people who find themselves locked in a isolated lodge under the ominous manipulation of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old biblical force. Anticipate to be ensnared by a motion picture journey that intertwines bodily fright with mythic lore, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a recurring fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the presences no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the darkest layer of every character. The result is a riveting moral showdown where the conflict becomes a unyielding contest between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving woodland, five friends find themselves caught under the malicious rule and spiritual invasion of a shadowy character. As the youths becomes incapacitated to resist her will, detached and preyed upon by terrors inconceivable, they are obligated to reckon with their inner horrors while the moments unceasingly counts down toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia rises and connections erode, pressuring each soul to question their true nature and the integrity of personal agency itself. The stakes magnify with every minute, delivering a nightmarish journey that marries otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to dive into elemental fright, an entity that existed before mankind, embedding itself in emotional vulnerability, and navigating a will that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so personal.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure streamers around the globe can dive into this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its intro video, which has been viewed over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Join this soul-jarring ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these spiritual awakenings about inner darkness.


For exclusive trailers, set experiences, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit the movie portal.





The horror genre’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. Slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, stacked beside franchise surges

Spanning survival horror drawn from mythic scripture and extending to returning series plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered plus tactically planned year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios lock in tentpoles with established lines, simultaneously subscription platforms flood the fall with emerging auteurs plus mythic dread. At the same time, festival-forward creators is riding the momentum of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are exacting, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp starts the year with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, the WB camp launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, buttoning the final window.

SVOD Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, 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. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable led by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No canon weight. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and 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 posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forward View: 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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The upcoming Horror Year Ahead: brand plays, new stories, and also A busy Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek The upcoming horror season loads up front with a January cluster, then flows through the warm months, and far into the holiday frame, combining marquee clout, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing lean spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that transform these films into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has proven to be the most reliable counterweight in release plans, a vertical that can spike when it hits and still insulate the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that lean-budget entries can dominate mainstream conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a schedule that seems notably aligned across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of known properties and first-time concepts, and a refocused focus on release windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and home platforms.

Planners observe the space now operates like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. The genre can launch on many corridors, generate a clean hook for previews and shorts, and outstrip with audiences that turn out on early shows and hold through the next pass if the entry pays off. Post a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 mapping telegraphs faith in that equation. The year begins with a loaded January band, then targets spring into early summer for balance, while holding room for a fall run that reaches into the Halloween corridor and past the holiday. The gridline also shows the expanded integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can grow from platform, create conversation, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across linked properties and veteran brands. Big banners are not just turning out another next film. They are aiming to frame connection with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that anchors a next entry to a early run. At the in tandem, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing practical craft, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That combination provides the 2026 slate a lively combination of trust and freshness, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount marks the early tempo with two marquee moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance hints at a fan-service aware campaign without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in signature symbols, first images of characters, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an synthetic partner that becomes a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to mirror uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that hybridizes attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are marketed as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward approach can feel cinematic on a efficient spend. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is framing 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 clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around mythos, and practical creature work, elements that can accelerate PLF interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that optimizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video combines licensed films with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and featured rows to keep attention on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival grabs, timing horror entries toward the drop and positioning as event drops arrivals with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with award winners or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 runway 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 is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a theatrical-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Be ready 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 in parallel, using small theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and stretch the story. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which match well with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar cadence

January is heavy. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 difficult boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the control balance tilts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, anchored by Cronin’s hands-on craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting premise that teases the panic of a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led 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 genre lampoon that targets contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. 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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing useful reference in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family lashed to older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. 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 period-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will line up across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first 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. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and visuals 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 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.