Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

An unnerving spiritual horror tale from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an mythic curse when guests become victims in a malevolent contest. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of perseverance and timeless dread that will reimagine terror storytelling this autumn. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and moody thriller follows five lost souls who suddenly rise trapped in a remote wooden structure under the unfriendly rule of Kyra, a tormented girl inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be seized by a theatrical presentation that melds raw fear with mythic lore, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a iconic narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reversed when the demons no longer manifest externally, but rather from their psyche. This illustrates the most sinister version of the protagonists. The result is a bone-chilling moral showdown where the emotions becomes a unforgiving contest between innocence and sin.


In a desolate forest, five adults find themselves isolated under the unholy effect and spiritual invasion of a enigmatic female figure. As the victims becomes unable to fight her grasp, disconnected and pursued by unknowns unfathomable, they are pushed to confront their greatest panics while the doomsday meter without pause pushes forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion builds and links disintegrate, pushing each person to reconsider their character and the structure of conscious will itself. The danger grow with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon basic terror, an malevolence that existed before mankind, manifesting in emotional fractures, and examining a darkness that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that flip is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences anywhere can witness this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has earned over notable views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Do not miss this life-altering trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these evil-rooted truths about human nature.


For sneak peeks, director cuts, and social posts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official digital haunt.





The horror genre’s sea change: 2025 across markets U.S. release slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, set against franchise surges

Ranging from last-stand terror grounded in biblical myth as well as brand-name continuations in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated paired with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners stabilize the year by way of signature titles, even as digital services prime the fall with new perspectives paired with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is carried on the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a room scale body horror descent including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 spook season: entries, universe starters, together with A packed Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The emerging terror cycle lines up at the outset with a January cluster, following that extends through summer corridors, and well into the holiday stretch, combining brand heft, novel approaches, and smart counterweight. The major players are doubling down on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that convert these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the sturdy counterweight in studio calendars, a space that can lift when it clicks and still mitigate the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to buyers that modestly budgeted entries can drive pop culture, 2024 held pace with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is room for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to director-led originals that export nicely. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that is strikingly coherent across companies, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and home platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now serves as a flex slot on the programming map. Horror can launch on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and punch above weight with moviegoers that show up on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the film fires. In the wake of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout underscores assurance in that setup. The year kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also shows the tightening integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and scale up at the inflection point.

An added macro current is legacy care across shared universes and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just releasing another continuation. They are seeking to position ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that connects a new entry to a vintage era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are returning to material texture, in-camera effects and specific settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile entries that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the center, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward campaign without retreading the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign built on recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also revives 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format allowing quick redirects to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and short reels that melds romance and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s releases are framed as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to lead 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning mix can feel top-tier on a controlled budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is calling a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both players and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can boost format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and period speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival additions, scheduling horror entries tight to release and positioning as event drops drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that translates talk to trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception allows. Plan on 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 as partners, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is emphasizing relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the deal build is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps make sense of the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a parallel release from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

How the look and feel evolve

The craft conversations behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates creep and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in craft profiles and guild coverage before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta-horror reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that explode in larger rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival navigate here chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the tone spread carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months stage summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s intelligent companion mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: gothic-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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance of power swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s physical craft and slow-bloom 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 domestic haunting story that filters its scares through a preteen’s shifting subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and name-above-title eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites spreads, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new family anchored to residual nightmares. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: to be announced. Production: underway. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 era-faithful speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces drive this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 placements. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 broad premium screen use 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 low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, and visual design 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 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.