Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 across top digital platforms

A hair-raising spiritual horror tale from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient curse when foreigners become subjects in a dark contest. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a intense journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will remodel horror this Halloween season. Visualized by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy story follows five young adults who suddenly rise stranded in a unreachable hideaway under the aggressive manipulation of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a legendary religious nightmare. Be prepared to be drawn in by a cinematic experience that combines bone-deep fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the beings no longer originate from a different plane, but rather inside them. This mirrors the haunting aspect of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the intensity becomes a merciless confrontation between light and darkness.


In a barren terrain, five souls find themselves stuck under the malicious presence and inhabitation of a unidentified entity. As the ensemble becomes helpless to combat her manipulation, severed and stalked by entities unnamable, they are thrust to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the deathwatch unforgivingly moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and friendships shatter, pressuring each person to scrutinize their identity and the notion of decision-making itself. The danger rise with every short lapse, delivering a frightening tale that harmonizes mystical fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to channel elemental fright, an force that existed before mankind, embedding itself in emotional vulnerability, and navigating a curse that questions who we are when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was about accessing something beneath mortal despair. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so close.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that horror lovers everywhere can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Don’t miss this cinematic voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to uncover these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For director insights, director cuts, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s tipping point: 2025 across markets stateside slate fuses archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, alongside series shake-ups

Running from survival horror steeped in legendary theology and stretching into franchise returns as well as surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most complex paired with precision-timed year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, simultaneously premium streamers flood the fall with debut heat together with archetypal fear. In parallel, independent banners is surfing the carry of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Premium genre swings back

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp lights the fuse with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring 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. timed for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. 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. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re teams, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: nostalgic menace, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overinflated mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare calendar year ahead: continuations, fresh concepts, plus A packed Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The fresh scare cycle stacks immediately with a January bottleneck, after that stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holiday frame, combining IP strength, fresh ideas, and well-timed alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that position these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has emerged as the surest release in release plans, a lane that can spike when it clicks and still safeguard the liability when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that cost-conscious fright engines can command the discourse, the following year kept energy high with filmmaker-forward plays and slow-burn breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and arthouse crossovers proved there is a lane for different modes, from franchise continuations to original features that resonate abroad. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across the industry, with clear date clusters, a harmony of established brands and original hooks, and a re-energized strategy on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now serves as a utility player on the slate. Horror can bow on most weekends, furnish a grabby hook for creative and shorts, and exceed norms with fans that lean in on previews Thursday and stick through the subsequent weekend if the entry hits. After a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows comfort in that engine. The slate launches with a busy January run, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall corridor that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also includes the expanded integration of specialized labels and streamers that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and expand at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand management across connected story worlds and long-running brands. Major shops are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that connects a next film to a classic era. At the meanwhile, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are returning to real-world builds, practical gags and grounded locations. That combination provides 2026 a smart balance of home base and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two spotlight releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a legacy handover and a rootsy character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a fan-service aware mode without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push anchored in franchise iconography, character previews, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format fitting quick pivots to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tidy, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew creepy live activations and brief clips that fuses romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are set up as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date allows Universal to own 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel big on a disciplined budget. Look for a hard-R summer horror charge that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is describing as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a structure that enhances both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the have a peek at this web-site data recommends it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, fright rows, and curated rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival snaps, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects useful reference with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has shown results for elevated genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate favors the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on marquee value. The question, as ever, is overexposure. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a ascendant talent. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is steady enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent-year comps make sense of the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre forecast a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes aura and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase 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 succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature work and production design, which are ideal for booth activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is stacked. 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 foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month wraps 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 thick, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a opaque tease strategy and limited pre-release reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card use.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 fight to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 scenario that routes the horror through a kid’s uncertain subjective lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why this year, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict 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 drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 search for sleepers 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, Young & Cursed using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.