Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

This hair-raising metaphysical thriller from screenwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an mythic horror when guests become subjects in a diabolical game. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving narrative of endurance and forgotten curse that will revamp the fear genre this ghoul season. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric tale follows five young adults who awaken trapped in a wooded house under the dark grip of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Be prepared to be gripped by a visual venture that fuses primitive horror with timeless legends, hitting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer come from elsewhere, but rather internally. This illustrates the most primal side of each of them. The result is a intense mental war where the intensity becomes a unforgiving push-pull between good and evil.


In a remote terrain, five campers find themselves contained under the evil control and grasp of a enigmatic character. As the cast becomes vulnerable to deny her manipulation, stranded and pursued by spirits ungraspable, they are thrust to stand before their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unforgivingly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and connections fracture, driving each person to examine their core and the concept of conscious will itself. The intensity grow with every passing moment, delivering a horror experience that combines ghostly evil with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel elemental fright, an malevolence older than civilization itself, working through inner turmoil, and examining a spirit that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring households worldwide can face this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its original promo, which has pulled in over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, taking the terror to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this haunted path of possession. Join *Young & Cursed* this launch day to experience these haunting secrets about the soul.


For cast commentary, production insights, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across entertainment pages and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s tipping point: 2025 across markets U.S. lineup blends myth-forward possession, independent shockers, plus series shake-ups

Spanning life-or-death fear drawn from old testament echoes and stretching into series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the richest along with deliberate year in a decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners stabilize the year with established lines, concurrently streamers flood the fall with debut heat alongside scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is carried on the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, and 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige fear returns

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures opens the year with a risk-forward move: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The bar is raised this go, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend led by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No 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 remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fright year to come: follow-ups, Originals, as well as A brimming Calendar optimized for shocks

Dek: The brand-new terror cycle loads immediately with a January traffic jam, before it runs through summer, and straight through the December corridor, balancing series momentum, inventive spins, and smart offsets. Distributors with platforms are leaning into responsible budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and viral-minded pushes that elevate genre releases into all-audience topics.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has solidified as the dependable release in studio slates, a vertical that can accelerate when it hits and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 reconfirmed for studio brass that efficiently budgeted chillers can command cultural conversation, 2024 carried the beat with director-led heat and sleeper breakouts. The energy fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and awards-minded projects confirmed there is an opening for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to fresh IP that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that seems notably aligned across the industry, with defined corridors, a pairing of brand names and fresh ideas, and a revived emphasis on cinema windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Studio leaders note the genre now acts as a versatile piece on the release plan. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, deliver a quick sell for creative and short-form placements, and outpace with moviegoers that come out on preview nights and stay strong through the follow-up frame if the movie hits. Coming out of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 mapping telegraphs belief in that logic. The year launches with a loaded January window, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a fall cadence that reaches into late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the continuing integration of specialty distributors and platforms that can launch in limited release, grow buzz, and grow at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is series management across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studios are not just pushing another follow-up. They are setting up brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that announces a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that binds a next entry to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the helmers behind the high-profile originals are returning to on-set craft, physical gags and grounded locations. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and novelty, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two big-ticket entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, setting it up as both a handoff and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a roots-evoking mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will hunt mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that becomes a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short reels that mixes intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an earned moment closer to the opening 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 lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are marketed as auteur events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a gritty, practical-effects forward treatment can feel high-value on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that centers global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, holding a reliable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build marketing units around lore, and creature effects, elements that can fuel format premiums and community activity.

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 extends Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is favorable.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s releases feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that fortifies both debut momentum and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using curated hubs, October hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix plays opportunist about Netflix films and festival wins, timing horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and fast windowing that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is engineering 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 angle is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to broaden. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror 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 typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Brands and originals

By count, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and director-first projects keep the lungs full. 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, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the bundle is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that honored streaming windows did not obstruct a day-and-date experiment from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, creates space for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries suggest a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, news has framed Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

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 moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. 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 heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: gothic-game 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 prickly boss push to survive on a desolate island as the pecking order inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, shaped by Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. 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 residential haunting piece that twists the unease of a child’s fragile read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led spirit-world 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 spoof revival that needles modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: production booked 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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan bound to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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-specific language and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The search for sleepers continues in Q1, where 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 work those windows. 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, 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 pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 bleak, 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 prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, 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 visual texture, sound field, and visual design 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, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.