Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

This chilling spectral suspense story from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an archaic malevolence when foreigners become instruments in a malevolent maze. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful depiction of resilience and ancient evil that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Helmed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and gothic tale follows five figures who arise imprisoned in a remote cottage under the menacing rule of Kyra, a cursed figure overtaken by a biblical-era sacrosanct terror. Brace yourself to be ensnared by a immersive venture that fuses bodily fright with legendary tales, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is redefined when the presences no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This mirrors the most primal corner of each of them. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the suspense becomes a unforgiving contest between moral forces.


In a isolated landscape, five adults find themselves trapped under the fiendish presence and overtake of a obscure figure. As the team becomes incapacitated to reject her rule, cut off and preyed upon by powers unimaginable, they are obligated to stand before their core terrors while the final hour ruthlessly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and bonds dissolve, compelling each participant to scrutinize their core and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The threat climb with every passing moment, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to extract primal fear, an malevolence from ancient eras, manipulating mental cracks, and examining a entity that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the evil takes hold, and that transition is terrifying because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that fans everywhere can engage with this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has received over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Make sure to see this heart-stopping path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to confront these unholy truths about the mind.


For previews, extra content, and reveals via the production team, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar interlaces legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, set against legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror drawn from primordial scripture and stretching into legacy revivals in concert with incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified together with strategic year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios set cornerstones with franchise anchors, as digital services crowd the fall with fresh voices alongside primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is surfing the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, which means 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Guided by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, an intimate body horror unraveling pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Penned and steered 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. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Key Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes 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.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. 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 trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 scare release year: installments, original films, And A stacked Calendar Built For Scares

Dek The emerging terror year crowds right away with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, combining IP strength, new voices, and savvy offsets. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn genre releases into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead mainstream conversation, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for many shades, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a roster that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with strategic blocks, a blend of household franchises and original hooks, and a tightened emphasis on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium home window and home streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can premiere on nearly any frame, deliver a simple premise for teasers and shorts, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that show up on opening previews and return through the next weekend if the offering lands. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration underscores confidence in that setup. The calendar opens with a weighty January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while making space for a fall corridor that runs into the Halloween frame and beyond. The arrangement also illustrates the ongoing integration of indie arms and platforms that can grow from platform, stoke social talk, and broaden at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across unified worlds and veteran brands. Major shops are not just making another chapter. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a new vibe or a talent selection that links a fresh chapter to a first wave. At the simultaneously, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are favoring tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That alloy gives 2026 a healthy mix of familiarity and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-centered film. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a heritage-honoring framework without covering again the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout leaning on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate mainstream recognition through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format fitting quick shifts to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic movies Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that escalates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that interweaves romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as filmmaker events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-month date gives Universal room to dominate 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-first mix can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror surge that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can drive IMAX and PLF uptake and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video pairs library titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival deals, timing horror entries tight to release and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 announced a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has worked well for prestige 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 firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Do not be surprised by 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 together, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, 2026 leans in favor of 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 brand erosion. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Three-year comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that respected streaming windows did not stop a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 produced back-to-back, enables marketing to relate entries through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind this year’s genre indicate a continued bias toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid heftier brand moves. 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 tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive 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 rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can win the holiday when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion shifts into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 hard-edged boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting premise that channels the fear through a minor’s uncertain personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led eerie 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 satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 surges, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household bound to residual nightmares. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-first horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 fear. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, acoustics, and imagery 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.