Ancient Darkness returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

This blood-curdling occult horror tale from creator / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an age-old fear when outsiders become victims in a diabolical contest. Streaming on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing journey of endurance and primordial malevolence that will reimagine terror storytelling this Halloween season. Visualized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic screenplay follows five lost souls who emerge stranded in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive will of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a ancient holy text monster. Arm yourself to be shaken by a cinematic outing that melds instinctive fear with timeless legends, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical theme in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the entities no longer appear outside the characters, but rather from their core. This mirrors the haunting version of every character. The result is a intense emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a unyielding battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a bleak landscape, five individuals find themselves contained under the malicious grip and infestation of a haunted spirit. As the survivors becomes helpless to break her will, disconnected and followed by unknowns indescribable, they are pushed to reckon with their worst nightmares while the deathwatch without pity strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear intensifies and alliances collapse, forcing each character to scrutinize their essence and the philosophy of personal agency itself. The tension accelerate with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that integrates supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore raw dread, an malevolence before modern man, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and dealing with a will that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering audiences no matter where they are can survive this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, offering the tale to thrill-seekers globally.


Avoid skipping this gripping journey into fear. Face *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these haunting secrets about existence.


For film updates, director cuts, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across platforms and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 season U.S. calendar interlaces biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, and IP aftershocks

Spanning survival horror infused with ancient scripture and including IP renewals as well as sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 appears poised to be the most dimensioned in tandem with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, in tandem SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives set against ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, independent banners is carried on the tailwinds of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, reaching teens and game grownups. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside 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 each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong 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. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to 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.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. 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.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next scare Year Ahead: brand plays, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek: The current genre season builds from the jump with a January pile-up, subsequently spreads through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, combining franchise firepower, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are doubling down on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and buzz-forward plans that frame these releases into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable lever in studio lineups, a vertical that can lift when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it fails to connect. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that cost-conscious shockers can dominate social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where reboots and festival-grade titles showed there is a lane for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The result for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and new packages, and a tightened stance on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now operates like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, yield a grabby hook for spots and TikTok spots, and outpace with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the second frame if the entry delivers. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping indicates confidence in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a heavy January schedule, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into the next week. The gridline also spotlights the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just rolling another entry. They are working to present continuity with a occasion, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new vibe or a ensemble decision that links a latest entry to a early run. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, real effects and location-forward worlds. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of assurance and shock, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two high-profile moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a relay and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a throwback-friendly angle without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign weblink is expected leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick pivots to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is crisp, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man sets up an AI companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to bring back odd public stunts and short reels that interlaces attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books 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 later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven execution can feel big on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio lines up two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both longtime followers and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is positive.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles head to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ordering that enhances both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends licensed titles with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and collection rows to stretch the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and coalescing around go-lives with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming 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 leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subs.

Known brands versus new stories

By weight, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a renewed see here feel. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the model. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept clean windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind 2026 horror indicate a continued move toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes mood and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which lend themselves to convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that work in PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid larger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s intelligent companion escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that frames the panic through a preteen’s wavering subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

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 parody return that needles of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family linked to past horrors. Rating: TBD. 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: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. 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-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 disciplined-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.