Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on leading streamers

An chilling paranormal thriller from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an timeless entity when unrelated individuals become pawns in a fiendish contest. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of staying alive and age-old darkness that will reimagine the horror genre this spooky time. Visualized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and moody suspense flick follows five strangers who emerge stranded in a off-grid structure under the malevolent dominion of Kyra, a possessed female possessed by a legendary Old Testament spirit. Get ready to be enthralled by a big screen adventure that integrates deep-seated panic with timeless legends, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring element in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the forces no longer develop from beyond, but rather deep within. This portrays the most sinister part of the group. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the suspense becomes a unyielding battle between heaven and hell.


In a isolated wilderness, five youths find themselves cornered under the unholy influence and inhabitation of a uncanny spirit. As the characters becomes paralyzed to reject her will, marooned and pursued by beings unfathomable, they are made to reckon with their soulful dreads while the final hour brutally strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and connections implode, compelling each survivor to examine their core and the nature of liberty itself. The cost grow with every fleeting time, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to draw upon instinctual horror, an darkness that predates humanity, filtering through our fears, and exposing a presence that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is oblivious until the possession kicks in, and that turn is eerie because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure users internationally can be part of this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first trailer, which has gathered over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to a worldwide audience.


Join this haunted descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to confront these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For sneak peeks, making-of footage, and promotions from the creators, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate interlaces biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, set against series shake-ups

Across fight-to-live nightmare stories inspired by legendary theology through to brand-name continuations set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated paired with strategic year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios hold down the year using marquee IP, while SVOD players front-load the fall with first-wave breakthroughs in concert with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, independent banners is carried on the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

By late summer, the Warner Bros. banner sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in 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 is a smart play. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

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

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

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

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare lineup: entries, filmmaker-first projects, in tandem with A jammed Calendar Built For chills

Dek: The current horror cycle crams in short order with a January crush, following that extends through the warm months, and carrying into the late-year period, blending IP strength, creative pitches, and shrewd counterplay. Distributors with platforms are embracing tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these pictures into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the dependable lever in release strategies, a lane that can scale when it lands and still limit the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to executives that efficiently budgeted chillers can drive social chatter, the following year kept the drumbeat going with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The run flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings demonstrated there is a market for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across companies, with mapped-out bands, a balance of recognizable IP and fresh ideas, and a renewed stance on box-office windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Buyers contend the genre now functions as a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can arrive on a wide range of weekends, deliver a quick sell for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with moviegoers that lean in on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the feature pays off. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm underscores belief in that equation. The slate kicks off with a busy January band, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a fall cadence that carries into Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also highlights the ongoing integration of indie arms and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and scale up at the strategic time.

A companion trend is legacy care across shared universes and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just greenlighting another entry. They are working to present continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a logo package that flags a new vibe or a cast configuration that reconnects a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the auteurs behind the most watched originals are championing physical effects work, real effects and vivid settings. That fusion offers 2026 a solid mix of familiarity and invention, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two marquee releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the center, signaling it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a memory-charged campaign without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave fueled by classic imagery, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick pivots to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an intelligent companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back eerie street stunts and bite-size content that mixes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a later trailer push that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what Sony is calling a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both longtime followers and curious audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build assets around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on obsessive craft and archaic language, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a tiered path that elevates both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the downstream. Prime Video pairs outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival additions, slotting horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

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 promise is direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate leans toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is familiar enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and advance-audience nights.

Rolling three-year comps frame the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not hamper a parallel release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they rotate perspective and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The craft rooms behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued emphasis on in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta recalibration that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which match well with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel definitive. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

The schedule at a glance

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid macro-brand pushes. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion shifts into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 difficult boss claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s practical effects and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting chiller that twists the unease of a child’s wobbly perspective. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons today’s horror trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll 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 surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: moving forward. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and leaner schedules. 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming releases. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that Source can control a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, tight deployments, 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 grain, soundcraft, 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 Promising 2026

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.