Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An frightening occult fright fest from screenwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic fear when outsiders become pawns in a devilish ordeal. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of staying alive and archaic horror that will revamp fear-driven cinema this harvest season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy suspense flick follows five people who are stirred sealed in a wilderness-bound structure under the sinister influence of Kyra, a female presence occupied by a millennia-old biblical demon. Prepare to be hooked by a narrative spectacle that unites instinctive fear with timeless legends, hitting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring tradition in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the beings no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather from their core. This represents the haunting facet of the victims. The result is a intense moral showdown where the drama becomes a brutal battle between right and wrong.


In a abandoned terrain, five figures find themselves caught under the evil aura and infestation of a elusive entity. As the youths becomes helpless to evade her dominion, marooned and targeted by spirits unnamable, they are confronted to reckon with their core terrors while the doomsday meter harrowingly winds toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease builds and alliances disintegrate, pressuring each figure to reconsider their personhood and the idea of free will itself. The risk climb with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract basic terror, an force before modern man, manifesting in inner turmoil, and confronting a power that peels away humanity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra called for internalizing something far beyond human desperation. She is unaware until the control shifts, and that flip is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering horror lovers no matter where they are can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has received over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to a global viewership.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these haunting secrets about our species.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror tipping point: calendar year 2025 American release plan Mixes archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, together with IP aftershocks

Spanning survival horror rooted in biblical myth and extending to legacy revivals in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated paired with calculated campaign year in a decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. leading studios are anchoring the year with familiar IP, even as streamers load up the fall with fresh voices in concert with ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is riding the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp begins the calendar with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma in the foreground, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, helmed 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 clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

What to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new chiller season: installments, new stories, And A busy Calendar designed for Scares

Dek: The current genre year clusters right away with a January traffic jam, and then rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday frame, braiding franchise firepower, inventive spins, and tactical alternatives. Studios and streamers are embracing tight budgets, exclusive theatrical windows first, and influencer-ready assets that convert these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Where horror stands going into 2026

The field has established itself as the surest counterweight in distribution calendars, a space that can grow when it performs and still limit the exposure when it stumbles. After 2023 reminded executives that cost-conscious chillers can steer mainstream conversation, the following year extended the rally with festival-darling auteurs and sleeper breakouts. The tailwind rolled into the 2025 frame, where reboots and prestige plays highlighted there is appetite for many shades, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a roster that reads highly synchronized across the industry, with strategic blocks, a spread of brand names and new concepts, and a recommitted focus on release windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now operates like a flex slot on the distribution slate. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, yield a quick sell for marketing and vertical videos, and outstrip with fans that line up on advance nights and keep coming through the second frame if the offering connects. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration signals certainty in that engine. The slate begins with a front-loaded January schedule, then uses spring and early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a fall corridor that extends to Halloween and into the next week. The map also highlights the continuing integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can nurture a platform play, build word of mouth, and broaden at the strategic time.

A companion trend is series management across interlocking continuities and legacy franchises. Studios are not just releasing another chapter. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting choice that ties a next entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the high-profile originals are favoring material texture, real effects and grounded locations. That interplay hands the 2026 slate a vital pairing of familiarity and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount establishes early momentum with two big-ticket titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a memory-charged framework without repeating the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run fueled by brand visuals, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever dominates horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is simple, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an intelligent companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date puts it at the front of a busy month, with the marketing arm likely to renew uncanny-valley stunts and short-cut promos that mixes devotion and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are presented as event films, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 steers, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, hands-on effects treatment can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, extending a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the get redirected here PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around world-building, and monster design, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in obsessive craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a sequence that fortifies both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video combines licensed films with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and programmed rows to keep attention on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 slate 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 appeal is straightforward: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the holiday dates to scale. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to package each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is spotlighting character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the configuration is anchored enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept streaming intact did not preclude a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was potent. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to cross-link entries through character spine and themes and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta inflection that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which are ideal for con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. 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 atmospheric change-up amid heftier brand moves. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now accommodates 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s virtual companion mutates 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: mood-led 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 abrasive boss work to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that toys with the dread of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: TBA. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 spreads, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household bound to ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 value-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 shock over-performer 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 viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 tactility, sound, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.