Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases ancient dread, a spine tingling feature, launching Oct 2025 across major streaming services

An unnerving spiritual fear-driven tale from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an timeless fear when unfamiliar people become pawns in a satanic game. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of endurance and prehistoric entity that will transform genre cinema this scare season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five lost souls who regain consciousness locked in a off-grid house under the ominous control of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a prehistoric sacrosanct terror. Prepare to be captivated by a immersive display that blends primitive horror with legendary tales, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay tradition in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is reimagined when the demons no longer originate from an outside force, but rather from within. This represents the malevolent version of the protagonists. The result is a riveting mental war where the tension becomes a constant confrontation between moral forces.


In a bleak outland, five adults find themselves stuck under the fiendish effect and haunting of a haunted woman. As the ensemble becomes vulnerable to escape her power, abandoned and stalked by spirits unfathomable, they are forced to face their darkest emotions while the timeline relentlessly winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension escalates and links crack, compelling each member to question their identity and the integrity of free will itself. The tension magnify with every breath, delivering a scare-fueled ride that connects unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore ancestral fear, an presence before modern man, working through emotional vulnerability, and exposing a being that forces self-examination when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the possession kicks in, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for home viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing households internationally can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first trailer, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to survive these haunting secrets about human nature.


For director insights, special features, and alerts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across fan hubs and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar blends ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, stacked beside Franchise Rumbles

Spanning grit-forward survival fare saturated with near-Eastern lore and extending to canon extensions paired with acutely observed indies, 2025 looks like horror’s most layered as well as strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. major banners stabilize the year using marquee IP, while platform operators front-load the fall with fresh voices in concert with ancient terrors. On the festival side, the art-house flank is buoyed by the momentum from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The fall stretch is the proving field, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal banner lights the fuse with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, Warner’s slate bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the memorable motifs return: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. 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 tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Heritage Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

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

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal 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 resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

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 scrap for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

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. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror season: installments, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror season stacks at the outset with a January cluster, from there unfolds through peak season, and well into the December corridor, blending IP strength, creative pitches, and smart offsets. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a lane that can expand when it hits and still mitigate the floor when it falls short. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that disciplined-budget fright engines can lead mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and quiet over-performers. The trend flowed into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and new concepts, and a reinvigorated eye on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium digital and home streaming.

Planners observe the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the grid. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for previews and TikTok spots, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on previews Thursday and hold through the follow-up frame if the feature delivers. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The year launches with a stacked January run, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a fall corridor that runs into Halloween and into November. The schedule also spotlights the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and move wide at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is series management across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just pushing another return. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a new tone or a casting choice that binds a new installment to a original cycle. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into in-camera technique, in-camera effects and site-specific worlds. That combination delivers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the center, positioning the film as both Young & Cursed a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a legacy-leaning strategy without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected stacked with franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will seek large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is crisp, loss-driven, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an AI companion that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date puts it at the front of a front-loaded month, with Universal’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that melds romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a proper title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are sold as creative events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a raw, physical-effects centered mix can feel premium on a lean spend. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus 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.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both FOMO and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and curated strips to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival additions, finalizing horror entries near launch and framing as events arrivals with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to secure select projects with award winners or celebrity-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 arc with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is tight: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, retooled for modern sonics and picture. 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 wide-to-platform plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to scale. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven 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 commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By share, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to frame each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date move from winning when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they change 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind 2026 horror point to a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that emphasizes aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and craft features before rolling out a teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that land in big rooms.

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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heavier IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s algorithmic partner unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 severe boss push to survive on a isolated island as the power balance reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting piece that frames the panic through a minor’s unreliable internal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal 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 comic send-up that teases today’s horror trends and true crime fervors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: moving forward. 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 era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, 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 texture, audio design, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.