Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

An haunting mystic fear-driven tale from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric curse when foreigners become pawns in a satanic ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of overcoming and timeless dread that will resculpt horror this spooky time. Helmed by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and gothic film follows five individuals who regain consciousness locked in a wooded cottage under the menacing rule of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be captivated by a filmic venture that combines primitive horror with ancient myths, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a enduring tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reversed when the forces no longer form outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This embodies the most hidden aspect of the group. The result is a enthralling mind game where the intensity becomes a ongoing face-off between purity and corruption.


In a unforgiving natural abyss, five figures find themselves caught under the possessive rule and inhabitation of a unknown spirit. As the protagonists becomes helpless to break her dominion, disconnected and stalked by unknowns beyond reason, they are forced to reckon with their inner demons while the moments without pause moves toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and friendships implode, compelling each figure to contemplate their personhood and the integrity of autonomy itself. The danger amplify with every heartbeat, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke basic terror, an power that existed before mankind, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a presence that questions who we are when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra demanded embodying something deeper than fear. She is clueless until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is gut-wrenching because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans around the globe can watch this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its first preview, which has garnered over massive response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For sneak peeks, production insights, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across entertainment pages and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. lineup fuses archetypal-possession themes, microbudget gut-punches, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from life-or-death fear grounded in ancient scripture all the way to legacy revivals paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered combined with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, even as streamers load up the fall with new perspectives alongside ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is fueled by the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are surgical, thus 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming spook slate: continuations, Originals, as well as A packed Calendar tailored for jolts

Dek The new genre calendar stacks at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently spreads through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, weaving franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. The major players are relying on right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has turned into the most reliable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can break out when it hits and still mitigate the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that efficiently budgeted fright engines can dominate social chatter, 2024 carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and filmmaker-prestige bets showed there is demand for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The combined impact for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a mix of known properties and novel angles, and a tightened focus on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on PVOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the category now slots in as a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can bow on numerous frames, offer a tight logline for spots and platform-native cuts, and lead with crowds that come out on advance nights and keep coming through the next pass if the film satisfies. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence demonstrates assurance in that engine. The slate begins with a front-loaded January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past the holiday. The program also spotlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can platform and widen, spark evangelism, and expand at the right moment.

A second macro trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. The players are not just turning out another continuation. They are moving to present story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that signals a recalibrated tone or a casting move that threads a fresh chapter to a initial period. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are championing practical craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That mix offers the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and discovery, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character piece. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance telegraphs a legacy-leaning approach without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with signature symbols, character spotlights, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever defines the conversation that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that shifts into a lethal partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with the marketing arm likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that blurs companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele titles are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a minimalist tease and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The prime October weekend gives the studio room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy execution can feel elevated on a moderate cost. Position this as a red-band summer horror rush that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 mission to serve both core fans and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already locked the day for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a cadence that expands both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video continues to mix licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, October hubs, and staff picks to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival grabs, slotting horror entries closer to drop and coalescing around launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of precision releases and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence 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 proposition is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday frame to expand. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven 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 usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception warrants. Plan on 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 select theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on franchise value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-inflected take from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a parallel release from thriving when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films point to a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes 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 serious, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 demanding boss push to survive on a remote island as the power dynamic shifts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 in-home haunting story that filters its scares through a youngster’s volatile internal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-supported and star-led ghost thriller.

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 parody reboot that satirizes today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: pending. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 breaks out, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming useful reference in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips timed to Thursday night 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. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will stack across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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-hit hunt continues in Q1, where lower and 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, and picture 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.