Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval horror, a pulse pounding thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

A spine-tingling mystic thriller from storyteller / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an archaic malevolence when guests become instruments in a cursed contest. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing chronicle of endurance and old world terror that will resculpt the fear genre this ghoul season. Brought to life by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie screenplay follows five unacquainted souls who wake up imprisoned in a hidden dwelling under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a tormented girl dominated by a millennia-old biblical force. Be prepared to be seized by a immersive journey that blends gut-punch terror with ancient myths, dropping 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 mainstay trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reversed when the malevolences no longer appear outside the characters, but rather internally. This symbolizes the darkest side of the cast. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a soul-crushing struggle between heaven and hell.


In a remote outland, five adults find themselves stuck under the malevolent presence and curse of a haunted apparition. As the companions becomes unresisting to fight her control, isolated and chased by evils unimaginable, they are forced to wrestle with their greatest panics while the seconds mercilessly pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and partnerships disintegrate, coercing each soul to contemplate their true nature and the idea of volition itself. The danger rise with every beat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges occult fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken ancestral fear, an darkness beyond recorded history, working through fragile psyche, and testing a force that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something more primal than sorrow. She is blind until the entity awakens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that fans anywhere can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this gripping trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these dark realities about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and announcements from the creators, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts Mixes myth-forward possession, underground frights, set against returning-series thunder

Running from survival horror grounded in old testament echoes and onward to series comebacks alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the richest plus calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios stabilize the year via recognizable brands, in parallel OTT services saturate the fall with new voices and mythic dread. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s distribution arm leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, speaking to teens and older millennials. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a close quarters body horror study led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trends Worth Watching

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Forward View: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming genre lineup: installments, original films, alongside A stacked Calendar geared toward Scares

Dek: The incoming terror slate crams right away with a January pile-up, from there carries through the warm months, and straight through the winter holidays, marrying IP strength, novel approaches, and strategic counterprogramming. The major players are prioritizing tight budgets, theater-first strategies, and social-fueled campaigns that transform the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has established itself as the bankable swing in studio slates, a category that can accelerate when it lands and still safeguard the exposure when it misses. After 2023 signaled to studio brass that efficiently budgeted entries can own social chatter, the following year kept the drumbeat going with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The run carried into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets proved there is a market for different modes, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that travel well. The aggregate for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with mapped-out bands, a spread of familiar brands and novel angles, and a sharpened focus on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a utility player on the schedule. Horror can debut on many corridors, offer a sharp concept for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with fans that arrive on early shows and maintain momentum through the week two if the title fires. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 mapping underscores conviction in that approach. The calendar gets underway with a thick January run, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while saving space for a late-year stretch that pushes into late October and beyond. The gridline also illustrates the ongoing integration of indie distributors and platforms that can platform a title, grow buzz, and broaden at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. Studios are not just releasing another continuation. They are shaping as lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that flags a reframed mood or a talent selection that links a latest entry to a classic era. At the same time, the directors behind the most watched originals are embracing hands-on technique, practical effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy affords 2026 a lively combination of recognition and discovery, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a handoff and a rootsy character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a legacy-leaning approach without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Plan for a rollout built on classic imagery, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will build general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever leads pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is elegant, tragic, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an artificial companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date places it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew odd public stunts and snackable content that interweaves companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as director events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to maximize 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, on-set effects led execution can feel prestige on a middle budget. Look for a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and period language, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that fortifies both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video continues to mix library titles with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using prominent placements, fright rows, and programmed rows to keep attention on lifetime take. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival snaps, locking in horror entries closer to drop and eventizing go-lives with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track 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 promise is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn stretch.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through select festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to move out. That positioning has delivered for auteur horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not foreclose a dual release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they rotate perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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, enables marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued lean toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that elevates creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in feature stories and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which work nicely for con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in big rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring prepare summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can hit 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 moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. 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 shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s synthetic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 demanding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the hierarchy turns and paranoia builds. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that explores the fright of a child’s fragile read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in pure survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 language and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout Source 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, audio design, 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.