Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on top streamers

An eerie paranormal fright fest from narrative craftsman / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an timeless evil when unfamiliar people become victims in a supernatural conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful story of overcoming and old world terror that will reshape fear-driven cinema this spooky time. Brought to life by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody motion picture follows five unacquainted souls who emerge trapped in a hidden cottage under the menacing power of Kyra, a central character controlled by a antiquated scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a cinematic ride that harmonizes deep-seated panic with legendary tales, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a well-established pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reversed when the forces no longer come from beyond, but rather from within. This represents the haunting corner of the victims. The result is a relentless mind game where the emotions becomes a relentless push-pull between virtue and vice.


In a desolate terrain, five young people find themselves contained under the evil influence and infestation of a shadowy figure. As the group becomes helpless to reject her curse, disconnected and chased by beings ungraspable, they are compelled to acknowledge their core terrors while the moments unceasingly winds toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust intensifies and bonds fracture, urging each individual to challenge their identity and the nature of freedom of choice itself. The risk rise with every breath, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines supernatural terror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to explore ancestral fear, an spirit that predates humanity, working through inner turmoil, and dealing with a force that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is clueless until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be released for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure customers everywhere can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, giving access to the movie to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this life-altering fall into madness. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these nightmarish insights about inner darkness.


For film updates, production insights, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus franchise surges

Ranging from survivor-centric dread inspired by mythic scripture and stretching into franchise returns alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most stratified paired with precision-timed year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios are anchoring the year with known properties, in tandem OTT services pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside ancient terrors. On the independent axis, independent banners is propelled by the kinetic energy from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are intentional, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule begins the calendar with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, inside today’s landscape. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. timed for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, the Warner lot sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, cornering year end horror.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable led by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as 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 an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

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

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays 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, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain 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 buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming chiller lineup: Sequels, new stories, together with A busy Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek The upcoming horror calendar packs early with a January pile-up, then carries through midyear, and far into the year-end corridor, blending brand heft, novel approaches, and savvy calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are betting on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and shareable marketing that turn these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has proven to be the predictable lever in distribution calendars, a corner that can surge when it resonates and still insulate the risk when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that responsibly budgeted fright engines can drive audience talk, 2024 held pace with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam carried into 2025, where reboots and awards-minded projects highlighted there is appetite for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to original features that export nicely. The end result for 2026 is a roster that presents tight coordination across players, with defined corridors, a combination of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a sharpened attention on exhibition windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and platforms.

Marketers add the space now serves as a wildcard on the distribution slate. The genre can launch on numerous frames, offer a tight logline for marketing and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that turn out on previews Thursday and return through the sophomore frame if the movie lands. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout signals certainty in that engine. The calendar launches with a busy January band, then targets spring into early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a autumn push that pushes into spooky season and into post-Halloween. The grid also reflects the continuing integration of specialized imprints and subscription services that can platform and widen, build word of mouth, and go nationwide at the timely point.

A notable top-line trend is brand curation across shared universes and veteran brands. The companies are not just rolling another sequel. They are seeking to position lore continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a art treatment that flags a new tone or a ensemble decision that threads a incoming chapter to a vintage era. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the headline-grabbing originals are championing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a lively combination of familiarity and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive built on classic imagery, character spotlights, and a tiered teaser plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set Young & Cursed to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time his comment is here since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will emphasize. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever tops the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that evolves into a perilous partner. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay eerie street stunts and short-form creative that mixes devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read 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 permits a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame allows Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has shown that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led mix can feel elevated on a tight budget. Expect a red-band summer horror hit that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio launches two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both devotees and newcomers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign creative around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by minute detail and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The company has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Windowing plans in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that fortifies both week-one demand and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video stitches together catalogue additions with world buys and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix films and festival additions, locking in horror entries near their drops and eventizing drops with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of precision theatrical plays and prompt platform moves that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to secure select projects with top-tier auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 pipeline with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is uncomplicated: the same haunting, 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 frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception prompts. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using mini theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By count, 2026 favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on cultural cachet. The challenge, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a rising filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they angle differently and elevate scope. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate signal a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and craft spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and gathers shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. 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 heftier brand moves. The month wraps 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 credible, but the palette of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May tee up summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genetic code. 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 sorrowing man’s intelligent companion mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 domestic haunting premise that routes the horror through a minor’s uneven POV. Rating: forthcoming. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined occult chiller.

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 spoof revival that lampoons today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental my company dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest social-ready stingers from test screenings, curated scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where modest-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, sound, and image-making 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 Shapes Up Strong

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, hold the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.