Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

One blood-curdling unearthly terror film from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an ancient force when strangers become puppets in a fiendish experiment. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving episode of perseverance and old world terror that will revolutionize terror storytelling this October. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and tone-heavy feature follows five unacquainted souls who wake up caught in a far-off shelter under the ominous manipulation of Kyra, a central character possessed by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Anticipate to be absorbed by a immersive display that weaves together primitive horror with arcane tradition, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing tradition in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reimagined when the entities no longer form beyond the self, but rather deep within. This represents the most primal facet of these individuals. The result is a intense spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a soul-crushing fight between light and darkness.


In a bleak backcountry, five campers find themselves stuck under the malicious control and overtake of a elusive spirit. As the youths becomes defenseless to withstand her grasp, isolated and preyed upon by presences unimaginable, they are cornered to acknowledge their inner horrors while the hours unceasingly counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease surges and connections collapse, forcing each protagonist to evaluate their values and the idea of liberty itself. The cost escalate with every tick, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that harmonizes spiritual fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke raw dread, an presence born of forgotten ages, manipulating psychological breaks, and challenging a spirit that erodes the self when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something more primal than sorrow. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that conversion is haunting because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users worldwide can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, extending the thrill to a worldwide audience.


Do not miss this mind-warping spiral into evil. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to dive into these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For director insights, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops via the production team, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 U.S. lineup Mixes Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, paired with returning-series thunder

Moving from survivor-centric dread steeped in legendary theology to canon extensions together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted combined with precision-timed year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. Top studios bookend the months using marquee IP, at the same time subscription platforms prime the fall with debut heat as well as archetypal fear. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the echoes of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Steered by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases 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, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

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 rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming fear calendar year ahead: entries, standalone ideas, alongside A busy Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The brand-new horror season loads right away with a January bottleneck, subsequently extends through summer, and continuing into the holiday frame, braiding franchise firepower, inventive spins, and tactical counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are betting on tight budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position the slate’s entries into four-quadrant talking points.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The genre has shown itself to be the most reliable swing in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it lands and still insulate the exposure when it underperforms. After 2023 re-taught decision-makers that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can dominate cultural conversation, 2024 maintained heat with director-led heat and quiet over-performers. The run extended into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is an opening for many shades, from returning installments to fresh IP that perform internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with planned clusters, a pairing of brand names and new concepts, and a sharpened stance on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and home platforms.

Schedulers say the horror lane now serves as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can arrive on many corridors, provide a quick sell for ad units and platform-native cuts, and exceed norms with viewers that arrive on preview nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the title hits. Following a production delay era, the 2026 pattern demonstrates trust in that playbook. The calendar begins with a loaded January block, then exploits spring through early summer for balance, while making space for a late-year stretch that extends to the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the continuing integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, stoke social talk, and widen at the strategic time.

Another broad trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and long-running brands. The players are not just greenlighting another installment. They are seeking to position connection with a specialness, whether that is a title presentation that flags a new vibe or a star attachment that anchors a new installment to a original cycle. At the same time, the auteurs behind the most anticipated originals are favoring hands-on technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a strong blend of brand comfort and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two spotlight titles that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a classic-referencing mode without recycling the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. A campaign is expected driven by franchise iconography, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will drive broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick switches to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique strategies. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, somber, and commercial: a grieving man activates an digital partner that turns into a dangerous lover. The date locates it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to revisit creepy live activations and micro spots that threads love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, this website the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, makeup-driven strategy can feel premium on a mid-range budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror shot that leans hard into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a fresh restart 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 well-defined brief to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot weblink hands Sony window to build campaign creative around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can increase format premiums and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by rigorous craft and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The company has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform plans for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that enhances both opening-weekend urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, spooky hubs, and collection rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival pickups, dating horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for sustained usage when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, guiding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 favors the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The workable fix is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is spotlighting core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is assuring enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that respected streaming windows did not block a hybrid test from performing when the brand was trusted. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and widen scale. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, provides the means for marketing to thread films through character web and themes and to sustain campaign assets without pause points.

Behind-the-camera trends

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries signal a continued turn toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a preview that withholds plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel necessary. Look for trailers that elevate razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

Release calendar overview

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the palette of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Late Q1 and spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 claw to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic flips and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 domestic haunting story that manipulates the fright of a child’s unreliable point of view. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that needles hot-button genre motifs and true-crime buzz. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, get redirected here 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: pending. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: to be announced. Production: moving forward. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 language and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 exploit those windows. 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, 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 cadence and diversity. January is a array, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions 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 endorse the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.