Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a nerve shredding feature, launching October 2025 across major platforms

An bone-chilling ghostly suspense film from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primordial terror when strangers become vehicles in a dark contest. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of staying alive and primordial malevolence that will transform the horror genre this Halloween season. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and gothic cinema piece follows five unacquainted souls who come to locked in a far-off wooden structure under the sinister grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a timeless holy text monster. Be warned to be immersed by a narrative experience that merges visceral dread with mystical narratives, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a iconic theme in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the monsters no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather from within. This depicts the most hidden element of the victims. The result is a riveting cognitive warzone where the events becomes a perpetual face-off between purity and corruption.


In a bleak wilderness, five young people find themselves confined under the sinister sway and haunting of a unknown apparition. As the companions becomes submissive to deny her dominion, abandoned and pursued by terrors mind-shattering, they are confronted to wrestle with their inner horrors while the final hour without pause ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear amplifies and partnerships fracture, compelling each individual to reflect on their true nature and the idea of conscious will itself. The stakes intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a terror ride that weaves together paranormal dread with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to channel deep fear, an curse before modern man, operating within soul-level flaws, and highlighting a will that challenges autonomy when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that streamers in all regions can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling path of possession. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to survive these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For teasers, extra content, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across online outlets and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts melds Mythic Possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside franchise surges

From fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from old testament echoes and including series comebacks set beside incisive indie visions, 2025 is emerging as the genre’s most multifaceted as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios lock in tentpoles by way of signature titles, even as subscription platforms prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as scriptural shivers. On another front, horror’s indie wing is propelled by the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A fat September–October lane is customary now, however this time, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal lights the fuse with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer eases, Warner’s schedule delivers the closing chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Granted the structure is classic, 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.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This run ups the stakes, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Shaped and helmed by 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, 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.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Forecast: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

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 key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new spook Year Ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A busy Calendar Built For frights

Dek The current scare slate loads from day one with a January logjam, after that runs through summer, and straight through the December corridor, fusing marquee clout, inventive spins, and calculated alternatives. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that position these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror has shown itself to be the surest move in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it clicks and still hedge the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that cost-conscious horror vehicles can drive the discourse, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is a market for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to one-and-done originals that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of legacy names and untested plays, and a re-energized strategy on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and platforms.

Executives say the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, deliver a clean hook for ad units and platform-native cuts, and outstrip with patrons that arrive on Thursday nights and continue through the subsequent weekend if the film satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration reflects certainty in that approach. The year rolls out with a loaded January band, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and past the holiday. The layout also shows the deeper integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Distribution groups are not just pushing another next film. They are moving to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the writer-directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of trust and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile plays that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward character-first story. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture announces a heritage-honoring campaign without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by legacy iconography, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will chase mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, heartbroken, and premise-first: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that turns into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to iterate on creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are Get More Info positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to take 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has established that a raw, in-camera leaning style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio lines up two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both fans and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to build marketing units around world-building, and creature effects, elements that can stoke large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in careful craft and language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal titles shift to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about own-slate titles and festival grabs, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to take on select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane 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 straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Watch 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 jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the packaging is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the approach. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and grow scope. 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 back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without long breaks.

How the look and feel evolve

The shop talk behind this year’s genre hint at a continued preference for in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers tone and tension rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that sing on PLF.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the range of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan 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 connects 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August and September into October leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that favor idea over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s intelligent companion grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss fight to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s on-set craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that leverages the panic of a child’s fragile perspective. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. 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 returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on current genre trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family entangled with past horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: undetermined. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. click to read more Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: TBD. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 lands now

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest meme-ready beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. 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.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, 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 surface detail, soundscape, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.