Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This unnerving mystic scare-fest from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic terror when unknowns become puppets in a malevolent game. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving chronicle of resistance and mythic evil that will revamp scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic tale follows five people who arise ensnared in a secluded shack under the sinister rule of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a antiquated ancient fiend. Prepare to be immersed by a motion picture venture that merges soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring trope in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is flipped when the monsters no longer arise from an outside force, but rather inside their minds. This illustrates the malevolent facet of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat psychological battle where the plotline becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a abandoned wild, five individuals find themselves trapped under the fiendish aura and haunting of a obscure female presence. As the survivors becomes submissive to combat her will, isolated and chased by presences mind-shattering, they are driven to endure their deepest fears while the seconds harrowingly ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust mounts and friendships disintegrate, compelling each soul to contemplate their existence and the structure of free will itself. The tension climb with every breath, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together otherworldly suspense with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dig into primal fear, an entity that existed before mankind, manipulating mental cracks, and highlighting a entity that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so internal.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing streamers worldwide can enjoy this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, making the film to lovers of terror across nations.


Experience this gripping descent into hell. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these dark realities about free will.


For featurettes, set experiences, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus domestic schedule weaves myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, plus legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with endurance-driven terror drawn from biblical myth and extending to legacy revivals set beside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted together with strategic year for the modern era.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, in parallel streamers pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs paired with old-world menace. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is drafting behind the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal camp kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell anchored by 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. Booked into mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

By late summer, the WB camp releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, with ghostly inner logic. This time, the stakes are raised, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It lands in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

In the mix sits Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows 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.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The next fright calendar year ahead: follow-ups, Originals, together with A Crowded Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The upcoming genre calendar packs immediately with a January cluster, thereafter rolls through the summer months, and running into the holiday frame, combining IP strength, creative pitches, and shrewd counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that turn these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The field has become the surest release in studio slates, a space that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reassured studio brass that low-to-mid budget pictures can command audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where returns and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is demand for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a run that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a reinvigorated stance on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Buyers contend the horror lane now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, generate a quick sell for creative and reels, and outperform with demo groups that line up on preview nights and continue through the next weekend if the feature connects. Coming out of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout signals comfort in that model. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while keeping space for a fall corridor that extends to the fright window and into November. The calendar also shows the deeper integration of boutique distributors and SVOD players that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and go nationwide at the precise moment.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just turning out another return. They are moving to present story carry-over with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing practical craft, special makeup and vivid settings. That mix provides the 2026 slate a robust balance of recognition and invention, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a fan-service aware angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave centered on signature symbols, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that threads longing and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a final title to become an headline beat closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a follow-up trailer set that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects strategy can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror surge that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is positioning 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 charge to serve both franchise faithful and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster design, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in minute detail and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ordering that maximizes both premiere heat and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together library titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on the 2026 genre total. Netflix stays opportunistic about internal projects and festival snaps, finalizing Check This Out horror entries near their drops and making event-like rollouts with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 runway with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for prestige horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception encourages. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The workable fix is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is underscoring character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-inflected take from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is comforting enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years contextualize the method. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they alter lens and increase ambition. 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 shot consecutively, permits marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a tease that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. 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 heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sustains.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation 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.

Project-by-project snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 claw to survive on a lonely island as the power balance flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, grounded in Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting premise that filters its scares through a young child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. 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 flares, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family linked to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. 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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 work those windows. 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. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

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

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundcraft, and cinematography 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

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