Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering October 2025 across top digital platforms

This frightening paranormal horror tale from scriptwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval malevolence when unfamiliar people become conduits in a satanic game. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of overcoming and archaic horror that will reconstruct the fear genre this season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and immersive screenplay follows five unknowns who wake up caught in a wooded lodge under the malignant grip of Kyra, a central character claimed by a legendary biblical force. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a audio-visual spectacle that fuses instinctive fear with ancient myths, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a recurring concept in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is turned on its head when the forces no longer descend from external sources, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the darkest side of all involved. The result is a harrowing spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a unyielding tug-of-war between good and evil.


In a abandoned natural abyss, five campers find themselves cornered under the possessive dominion and overtake of a obscure entity. As the youths becomes incapable to evade her dominion, disconnected and chased by terrors unfathomable, they are cornered to acknowledge their greatest panics while the deathwatch without pity ticks onward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and connections erode, pressuring each person to rethink their character and the concept of liberty itself. The cost intensify with every breath, delivering a cinematic nightmare that connects mystical fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken elemental fright, an presence before modern man, operating within fragile psyche, and exposing a power that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the evil takes hold, and that shift is bone-chilling because it is so personal.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that audiences from coast to coast can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this gripping fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these unholy truths about the soul.


For previews, extra content, and news from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your socials and visit the official movie site.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: calendar year 2025 American release plan Mixes myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, alongside returning-series thunder

From survivor-centric dread infused with old testament echoes as well as returning series plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated in tandem with strategic year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses lay down anchors with established lines, in parallel digital services flood the fall with new perspectives together with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is fueled by the uplift of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, and 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures lights the fuse with a confident swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated 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 ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Steered by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma driven plotting, along with eerie supernatural rules. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, stretches the animatronic parade, speaking to teens and older millennials. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, 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.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. 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.

Key Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming chiller Year Ahead: follow-ups, new stories, paired with A brimming Calendar aimed at screams

Dek The emerging genre slate crowds from day one with a January wave, subsequently rolls through peak season, and running into the winter holidays, marrying marquee clout, new concepts, and data-minded counterweight. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on cost discipline, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-driven marketing that turn these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has turned into the bankable counterweight in release strategies, a genre that can break out when it breaks through and still limit the risk when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year demonstrated to greenlighters that efficiently budgeted scare machines can steer social chatter, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects proved there is demand for several lanes, from franchise continuations to original features that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the market, with defined corridors, a pairing of established brands and fresh ideas, and a recommitted priority on box-office windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Schedulers say the category now acts as a versatile piece on the rollout map. Horror can bow on most weekends, offer a clear pitch for trailers and UGC-friendly snippets, and lead with fans that line up on early shows and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. In the wake of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 cadence reflects comfort in that engine. The slate gets underway with a busy January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a autumn push that runs into All Hallows period and into early November. The map also reflects the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and home platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and scale up at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is legacy care across connected story worlds and classic IP. Big banners are not just mounting another continuation. They are trying to present connection with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that flags a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to material texture, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and freshness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate releases that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, steering it as both a handoff and a classic-mode character-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a fan-service aware strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout leaning on recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will hunt large awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. navigate to this website SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is simple, somber, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an machine companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to recreate odd public stunts and short reels that hybridizes love and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names 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 final title to become an PR pop closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to lead 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, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, makeup-driven mix can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror surge that spotlights international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio rolls out two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a reset 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 explicit mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build artifacts around universe detail, and monster design, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on meticulous craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that boosts both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the downstream. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with worldwide entries and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library curation, using timely promos, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but movies their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subs.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, 2026 leans in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the deal build is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a hybrid test from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror over-performed in premium large format. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that spotlights atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature design and production design, which work nicely for convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is full. Universal’s 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 macro-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring prepare summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 push to survive on a lonely island as the control dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, based on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that leverages the fright of a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and headline-actor led spirit-world 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 current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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: awaiting classification. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a unlucky family caught in lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: undetermined. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces define this lineup. First, production that eased or re-slotted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will trade weekends across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far this content below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, 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.

A Promising 2026

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.