Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This hair-raising mystic nightmare movie from dramatist / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval curse when unfamiliar people become vehicles in a devilish conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of continuance and primordial malevolence that will alter horror this spooky time. Crafted by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric tale follows five characters who arise locked in a wilderness-bound cottage under the unfriendly control of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Get ready to be shaken by a filmic ride that integrates soul-chilling terror with biblical origins, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established pillar in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is redefined when the demons no longer develop from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This represents the grimmest version of every character. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a relentless tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a desolate wild, five campers find themselves cornered under the ominous presence and haunting of a mysterious being. As the ensemble becomes powerless to evade her dominion, disconnected and preyed upon by entities inconceivable, they are confronted to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the final hour unceasingly edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and links fracture, pushing each protagonist to reconsider their existence and the principle of liberty itself. The danger surge with every tick, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together otherworldly panic with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to channel primitive panic, an force before modern man, manifesting in emotional fractures, and questioning a spirit that questions who we are when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was centered on something unfamiliar to reason. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so deep.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households everywhere can watch this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Witness this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Face *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, director cuts, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official website.





American horror’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts blends primeval-possession lore, underground frights, and brand-name tremors

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror steeped in ancient scripture all the way to returning series set beside surgical indie voices, 2025 appears poised to be the most stratified and blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors are anchoring the year with established lines, concurrently streamers front-load the fall with fresh voices together with primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is buoyed by the tailwinds from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm lights the fuse with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

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

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: 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 Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No swollen lore. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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 dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

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 must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The upcoming genre release year: brand plays, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A stacked Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The arriving horror cycle lines up in short order with a January logjam, then spreads through the warm months, and well into the late-year period, braiding brand heft, original angles, and well-timed alternatives. Major distributors and platforms are betting on efficient budgets, cinema-first plans, and platform-native promos that shape these films into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has become the most reliable swing in studio slates, a category that can spike when it lands and still hedge the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for leaders that modestly budgeted scare machines can lead the zeitgeist, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The momentum extended into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is room for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that travel well. The sum for the 2026 slate is a schedule that appears tightly organized across the market, with mapped-out bands, a mix of marquee IP and novel angles, and a tightened priority on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium home window and home streaming.

Executives say the space now slots in as a utility player on the programming map. Horror can launch on virtually any date, offer a simple premise for spots and social clips, and outperform with audiences that appear on Thursday previews and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the title lands. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that equation. The year launches with a crowded January block, then targets spring into early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a fall corridor that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The layout also reflects the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can platform a title, spark evangelism, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is IP stewardship across unified worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just rolling another chapter. They are working to present continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title design that signals a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that binds a incoming chapter to a original cycle. At the meanwhile, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating practical craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of recognition and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture telegraphs a nostalgia-forward campaign without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave stacked with classic imagery, intro reveals, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer alternative, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever leads horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, sorrow-tinged, and big-hook: a grieving man activates an digital partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s team likely to reprise uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that mixes romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are treated as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to maximize 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a gritty, in-camera leaning treatment can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that leans into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a new foundation 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 players and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can boost premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 defined by historical precision and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about own-slate titles and festival deals, securing horror entries closer to launch and turning into events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with prestige directors or A-list packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc 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 clear: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Plan on 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the assembly is steady enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns announce the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date try from delivering when the brand was big. In 2024, director-craft horror punched above its weight in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, enables marketing to link the films through character and theme and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind the year’s horror point to a continued emphasis on tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that highlights aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that center hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 brooding contrast amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sticks.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia heat. useful reference In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genome. 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 bereaved man’s AI companion unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 difficult boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fright, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting tale that manipulates the horror of a child’s inconsistent interpretations. Rating: pending. Production: wrapped. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that skewers today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a new household bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBA. Production: proceeding. 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 era-faithful speech and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and tighter 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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 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 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.