Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

An unnerving metaphysical fright fest from screenwriter / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial force when unknowns become tokens in a supernatural trial. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving episode of endurance and primordial malevolence that will transform terror storytelling this harvest season. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy feature follows five unknowns who come to imprisoned in a remote cabin under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a central character dominated by a ancient sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be immersed by a theatrical spectacle that blends intense horror with ancestral stories, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a time-honored theme in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is flipped when the demons no longer manifest from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This illustrates the most sinister version of the cast. The result is a enthralling inner struggle where the events becomes a unyielding struggle between heaven and hell.


In a barren wild, five figures find themselves cornered under the malevolent effect and inhabitation of a enigmatic female presence. As the youths becomes incapable to fight her power, isolated and hunted by spirits ungraspable, they are cornered to deal with their emotional phantoms while the moments mercilessly pushes forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia grows and relationships dissolve, urging each person to evaluate their personhood and the structure of personal agency itself. The intensity intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that intertwines ghostly evil with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore primitive panic, an power from prehistory, feeding on human fragility, and exposing a curse that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is blind until the haunting manifests, and that shift is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers internationally can survive this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to global fright lovers.


Don’t miss this unforgettable path of possession. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these haunting secrets about human nature.


For sneak peeks, special features, and promotions from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: the year 2025 U.S. lineup interlaces primeval-possession lore, indie terrors, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Beginning with survival horror rooted in biblical myth and extending to IP renewals together with acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified together with blueprinted year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. Major studios lock in tentpoles through proven series, in tandem premium streamers saturate the fall with fresh voices together with ancestral chills. On the festival side, horror’s indie wing is riding the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: The Return of Prestige Fear

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline opens the year with a confident swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is virtually assured for fall.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in 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 a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No brand fatigue. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

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

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The 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 reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror resurges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming chiller year to come: installments, original films, paired with A brimming Calendar tailored for chills

Dek: The emerging scare season lines up right away with a January wave, from there spreads through midyear, and deep into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, inventive spins, and smart release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are betting on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that pivot the slate’s entries into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the most reliable option in studio lineups, a segment that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the drag when it falls short. After 2023 proved to studio brass that cost-conscious chillers can drive mainstream conversation, 2024 continued the surge with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The momentum rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is capacity for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted strategy on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium rental and home streaming.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a flex slot on the release plan. Horror can bow on many corridors, generate a clean hook for creative and shorts, and exceed norms with fans that come out on Thursday previews and return through the next weekend if the movie pays off. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows confidence in that equation. The calendar launches with a busy January block, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that connects to All Hallows period and beyond. The gridline also shows the increasing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and expand at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is series management across shared universes and legacy IP. The studios are not just greenlighting another installment. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that suggests a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that connects a next film to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are doubling down on real-world builds, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a strong blend of familiarity and newness, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two headline entries that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character-centered film. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout rooted in franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue general-audience talk through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three defined plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, melancholic, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that escalates into a murderous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and bite-size content that interlaces love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a public title to become an event moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are sold as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has made clear that a raw, makeup-driven style can feel cinematic on a moderate cost. Frame it as a hard-R summer horror hit that leans hard into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can fuel premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that expands both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the later window. Prime Video will mix licensed content with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in More about the author catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival buys, dating horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-first horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Expect 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 in concert, using precision theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subs.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is audience fatigue. The practical approach is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns frame the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that held distribution windows did not block a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to link the films through character and theme and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries indicate a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is jammed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall my review here leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that trade in concept over detail.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s AI companion evolves into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 interrogates the dread of a child’s inconsistent point of view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family snared by older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: undetermined. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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: pending. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 unexpected breakout 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, audio design, and framing 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.