Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

One hair-raising supernatural thriller from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an archaic malevolence when drifters become tokens in a devilish ritual. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of living through and ancient evil that will revamp genre cinema this ghoul season. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and shadowy fearfest follows five strangers who are stirred locked in a cut-off shelter under the dark rule of Kyra, a central character dominated by a biblical-era biblical demon. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a screen-based adventure that unites primitive horror with ancestral stories, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a well-established theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the demons no longer develop from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the most hidden version of all involved. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the conflict becomes a brutal conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a haunting forest, five teens find themselves marooned under the ghastly influence and haunting of a haunted person. As the team becomes unresisting to deny her dominion, stranded and stalked by powers beyond reason, they are required to reckon with their inner horrors while the timeline ruthlessly ticks toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion grows and ties shatter, forcing each character to question their being and the idea of personal agency itself. The danger accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that weaves together ghostly evil with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into elemental fright, an threat that existed before mankind, filtering through our fears, and testing a entity that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra asked for exploring something beneath mortal despair. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure users internationally can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing 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 North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Do not miss this mind-warping descent into darkness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these unholy truths about mankind.


For featurettes, set experiences, and social posts from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Facebook and TikTok and visit our spooky domain.





Horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. rollouts fuses old-world possession, underground frights, alongside IP aftershocks

Running from survivor-centric dread saturated with biblical myth all the way to series comebacks paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 looks like the most textured along with precision-timed year of the last decade.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners plant stakes across the year using marquee IP, even as OTT services load up the fall with new perspectives paired with legend-coded dread. In parallel, festival-forward creators is riding the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: High-craft horror returns

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a marquee bet: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in a clear present-tense world. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. rolls out the capstone from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The continuation widens the legend, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning 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 resurges
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching terror Year Ahead: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A loaded Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek: The current scare year lines up from day one with a January crush, thereafter extends through summer corridors, and well into the year-end corridor, balancing brand heft, original angles, and calculated calendar placement. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and buzz-forward plans that position the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the predictable counterweight in programming grids, a space that can break out when it connects and still mitigate the liability when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that mid-range scare machines can galvanize the zeitgeist, the following year held pace with signature-voice projects and sleeper breakouts. The upswing translated to the 2025 frame, where resurrections and awards-minded projects made clear there is capacity for varied styles, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that translate worldwide. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that seems notably aligned across the field, with mapped-out bands, a equilibrium of marquee IP and new concepts, and a re-energized strategy on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on paid VOD and subscription services.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a wildcard on the slate. The genre can kick off on a wide range of weekends, deliver a clear pitch for promo reels and vertical videos, and over-index with audiences that show up on preview nights and return through the sophomore frame if the feature satisfies. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan exhibits belief in that model. The slate commences with a heavy January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a October build that extends to Halloween and into the next week. The arrangement also features the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, grow buzz, and scale up at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is brand management across connected story worlds and established properties. Big banners are not just mounting another chapter. They are looking to package story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a refreshed voice or a casting choice that binds a next entry to a original cycle. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, on-set effects and concrete locations. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate plays that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a memory-charged strategy without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a tease cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that mixes companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are marketed as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a gritty, practical-effects forward method can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on his comment is here September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach 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 fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and archaic language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that optimizes both premiere heat and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video will mix outside acquisitions with global pickups and short theatrical plays when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using timely promos, horror hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival pickups, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and framing as events debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to widen. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. 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 as partners, using targeted theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchise entries versus originals

By share, 2026 tips toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap name recognition. The concern, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to position each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a continental coloration from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

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, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. movies Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not block a same-day experiment from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, enables marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued emphasis on physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel essential. Look for trailers that highlight pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that explode in larger rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is jammed. 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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can connect 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 PLF.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power inverts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting premise that pipes the unease through a preteen’s wavering internal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satire sequel that riffs on modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household bound to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving forward. 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-specific language and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces structure this lineup. First, production that paused or migrated in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more structured 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 drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where value-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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, and imagery 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

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the frights sell the seats.