Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

One spine-tingling paranormal scare-fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old evil when unfamiliar people become puppets in a devilish struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of resistance and prehistoric entity that will reimagine genre cinema this cool-weather season. Realized by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic film follows five people who awaken imprisoned in a hidden structure under the ominous control of Kyra, a haunted figure consumed by a time-worn biblical demon. Get ready to be enthralled by a theatrical display that unites primitive horror with ancient myths, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a legendary pillar in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is redefined when the dark entities no longer arise from beyond, but rather from their psyche. This suggests the most hidden shade of every character. The result is a relentless mind game where the intensity becomes a merciless fight between heaven and hell.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five adults find themselves isolated under the sinister aura and haunting of a shadowy figure. As the youths becomes incapacitated to evade her dominion, severed and tracked by unknowns unnamable, they are made to stand before their worst nightmares while the final hour relentlessly counts down toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and alliances splinter, pushing each participant to rethink their existence and the structure of volition itself. The intensity amplify with every tick, delivering a horror experience that fuses unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke primal fear, an evil from ancient eras, filtering through mental cracks, and wrestling with a being that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is blind until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is harrowing because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for horror fans beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—offering audiences across the world can witness this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has garnered over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Do not miss this gripping spiral into evil. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to see these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For teasers, production news, and social posts directly from production, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 U.S. release slate weaves myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, together with legacy-brand quakes

Running from fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with scriptural legend and extending to canon extensions in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 appears poised to be the most variegated in tandem with strategic year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors stabilize the year through proven series, in tandem streaming platforms prime the fall with discovery plays in concert with archetypal fear. On another front, the independent cohort is fueled by the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the base, 2025 doubles down.

Universal sets the tone with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: throwback unease, trauma as theme, 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 calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. 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.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin 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 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Forward View: 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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive 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 genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching chiller slate: continuations, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar designed for chills

Dek The emerging terror cycle builds from the jump with a January pile-up, thereafter unfolds through summer corridors, and pushing into the festive period, blending series momentum, novel approaches, and smart offsets. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on mid-range economics, theater-first strategies, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the surest option in annual schedules, a space that can break out when it connects and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 proved to executives that efficiently budgeted entries can drive the discourse, the following year extended the rally with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam rolled into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects highlighted there is appetite for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a calendar that reads highly synchronized across the market, with defined corridors, a harmony of familiar brands and novel angles, and a re-energized commitment on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the category now acts as a swing piece on the rollout map. Horror can bow on nearly any frame, provide a sharp concept for ad units and shorts, and outpace with viewers that arrive on opening previews and hold through the subsequent weekend if the picture fires. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The year begins with a busy January run, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into the next week. The layout also reflects the stronger partnership of specialized labels and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and roll out at the sweet spot.

Another broad trend is brand curation across linked properties and established properties. Major shops are not just releasing another installment. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that signals a tonal shift or a cast configuration that ties a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals click site are championing real-world builds, real effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy hands 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, framing it as both a relay and a heritage-centered character study. Production is active in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a classic-referencing treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign centered on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is efficient, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that becomes a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and short reels that hybridizes devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s work are marketed as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, practical-effects forward strategy can feel high-value on a lean spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror shock that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a new foundation 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 well-defined brief to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build campaign pieces around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost deluxe auditorium demand and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and linguistic texture, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs library titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using timely promos, October hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with prestige directors or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is simple: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect 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 tandem, using boutique theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By tilt, the 2026 slate bends toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is assuring enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not stop a dual release from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror signal a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers mood and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature work and production design, which fit with con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. 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 makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth sustains.

February through May set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: aura-driven 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 unyielding boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that twists the chill of a child’s inconsistent read. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 send-up revival that pokes at modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film imp source (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-core horror over action fireworks. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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 primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 and why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. 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 capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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. Anticipate a robust 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 rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 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 grain, 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.