Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

A chilling paranormal scare-fest from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old force when foreigners become victims in a malevolent ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish account of resilience and archaic horror that will reimagine scare flicks this scare season. Created by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and shadowy thriller follows five figures who come to caught in a isolated structure under the sinister dominion of Kyra, a young woman controlled by a antiquated holy text monster. Brace yourself to be gripped by a audio-visual spectacle that blends intense horror with legendary tales, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a recurring foundation in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the beings no longer appear from a different plane, but rather inside their minds. This depicts the shadowy part of the protagonists. The result is a relentless mind game where the tension becomes a merciless contest between right and wrong.


In a forsaken natural abyss, five friends find themselves trapped under the dark control and inhabitation of a haunted spirit. As the youths becomes submissive to break her power, detached and chased by beings unimaginable, they are obligated to battle their core terrors while the seconds unceasingly moves toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and relationships shatter, demanding each cast member to challenge their character and the philosophy of volition itself. The danger climb with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries unearthly horror with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to dive into primal fear, an power before modern man, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and wrestling with a entity that questions who we are when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra needed manifesting something beyond human emotion. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that pivot is emotionally raw because it is so intimate.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving customers in all regions can survive this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to global fright lovers.


Join this mind-warping ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to witness these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





The horror genre’s major pivot: the year 2025 U.S. Slate weaves biblical-possession ideas, indie terrors, stacked beside franchise surges

Ranging from survivor-centric dread inspired by legendary theology to franchise returns and cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is shaping up as the most dimensioned along with intentionally scheduled year in recent memory.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Top studios hold down the year with known properties, in parallel streamers pack the fall with emerging auteurs and legend-coded dread. Meanwhile, independent banners is riding the momentum from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures bows the concluding entry from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Finishing the tentpole list 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, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror duet fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled 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 menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

From Festivals to Market

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching spook lineup: brand plays, Originals, paired with A loaded Calendar optimized for chills

Dek: The new scare cycle stacks immediately with a January glut, subsequently extends through summer, and running into the festive period, mixing brand heft, inventive spins, and smart counterweight. The major players are leaning into smart costs, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that convert the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has solidified as the surest counterweight in studio lineups, a category that can break out when it lands and still buffer the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that cost-conscious fright engines can shape pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films signaled there is capacity for many shades, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that scale internationally. The net effect for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across players, with defined corridors, a harmony of legacy names and original hooks, and a recommitted priority on big-screen windows that increase tail monetization on premium home window and platforms.

Executives say the space now operates like a versatile piece on the slate. The genre can premiere on many corridors, create a simple premise for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and exceed norms with moviegoers that lean in on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature lands. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 setup reflects faith in that equation. The slate opens with a front-loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a October build that reaches into the Halloween frame and into early November. The map also features the greater integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and grow at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another follow-up. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title treatment that indicates a new tone or a star attachment that links a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the creative leads behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That convergence gives 2026 a robust balance of trust and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two marquee entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is elegant, loss-driven, and logline-clear: a grieving man onboards an AI companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date puts it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay odd public stunts and short reels that interweaves attachment and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a public title to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are marketed as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to dominate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, practical-first approach can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror charge that pushes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is billing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature builds, More about the author elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by historical precision and historical speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that amplifies both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using curated hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival snaps, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events premieres with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has been willing to board select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway 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 no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, managing the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception encourages. Keep an eye on 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 together, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Known brands versus new stories

By volume, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage marquee value. The question, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is steady enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not hamper a hybrid test from hitting when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium large format. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on 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 shot back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the year’s horror indicate a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates tone and tension rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which are ideal for convention activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

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 atmospheric change-up amid headline IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Q1 into Q2 seed summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can deliver 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 run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s AI companion grows into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 unyielding boss battle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that filters its scares through a child’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 parody reboot that riffs on today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 detonates, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new household tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. 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 period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 exploit those windows. 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 tempo and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound field, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, inventive vision where it helps, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the frights sell the seats.