Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primordial evil, a hair raising chiller, launching October 2025 across major platforms

One frightening spectral suspense film from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten curse when outsiders become proxies in a demonic conflict. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving journey of staying alive and old world terror that will remodel horror this spooky time. Directed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and shadowy feature follows five people who wake up stranded in a wilderness-bound structure under the malignant power of Kyra, a central character haunted by a legendary holy text monster. Prepare to be enthralled by a narrative ride that intertwines bone-deep fear with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a iconic foundation in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the fiends no longer come from beyond, but rather internally. This symbolizes the deepest aspect of each of them. The result is a gripping internal warfare where the narrative becomes a merciless conflict between virtue and vice.


In a isolated terrain, five figures find themselves imprisoned under the dark sway and infestation of a secretive entity. As the victims becomes submissive to escape her command, marooned and pursued by terrors ungraspable, they are driven to confront their darkest emotions while the clock relentlessly ticks toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia surges and ties implode, prompting each participant to question their true nature and the integrity of personal agency itself. The cost intensify with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken basic terror, an entity that existed before mankind, manipulating human fragility, and exposing a curse that challenges autonomy when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra asked for exploring something darker than pain. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that transition is terrifying because it is so emotional.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—giving households across the world can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its first preview, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, exporting the fear to thrill-seekers globally.


Mark your calendar for this unforgettable voyage through terror. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these nightmarish insights about free will.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your socials and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s tipping point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate braids together old-world possession, Indie Shockers, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

From grit-forward survival fare suffused with scriptural legend and stretching into installment follow-ups as well as keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered in tandem with blueprinted year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio powerhouses plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, in tandem SVOD players crowd the fall with fresh voices together with mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is drafting behind the uplift of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated 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. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer fades, the WB camp unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. 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, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Horror: 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. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Originals on platforms bite harder
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming genre season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare cycle loads in short order with a January wave, subsequently extends through summer, and pushing into the festive period, blending marquee clout, untold stories, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that elevate these releases into mainstream chatter.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the surest counterweight in release strategies, a genre that can scale when it hits and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year signaled to strategy teams that efficiently budgeted pictures can shape the national conversation, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The run rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers proved there is appetite for varied styles, from continued chapters to filmmaker-driven originals that perform internationally. The end result for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with defined corridors, a pairing of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a re-energized focus on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and home streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now acts as a versatile piece on the programming map. The genre can arrive on many corridors, create a clean hook for teasers and platform-native cuts, and outpace with patrons that line up on advance nights and return through the week two if the picture connects. Exiting a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 rhythm indicates assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January band, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a October build that runs into the Halloween corridor and into the next week. The schedule also highlights the ongoing integration of specialized imprints and digital platforms that can platform a title, generate chatter, and move wide at the strategic time.

An added macro current is series management across shared universes and legacy IP. Studios are not just rolling another chapter. They are seeking to position lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a new tone or a cast configuration that threads a new installment to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are championing real-world builds, special makeup and distinct locales. That fusion affords 2026 a strong blend of home base and newness, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a relay and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture suggests a throwback-friendly campaign without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a tease cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique entries. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tidy, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew odd public stunts and bite-size content that interweaves attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an Young & Cursed untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a public title to become an attention spike closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His entries are marketed as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy treatment can feel prestige on a mid-range budget. Look for a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is billing as a fresh restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both longtime followers and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around mythos, and practical creature work, elements that can increase premium format interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by meticulous craft and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a structure that maximizes both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using timely promos, fright rows, and curated strips to extend momentum on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries near their drops and staging as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of targeted cinema placements and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled 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 hinted a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has been successful for elevated genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, 2026 leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on legacy awareness. The question, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed 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 clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps help explain the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not prevent a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 lensed sequentially, allows marketing to tie installments through cast and motif and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries telegraph a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds grain and menace rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

From winter to holidays

January is packed. 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month ends 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 formidable, but the tonal variety lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited disclosures that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s genes. 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 heartbroken man’s digital partner escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of weblink a lost love, only to face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. 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 unyielding boss battle to survive on a remote island as the control dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to horror, based on Cronin’s physical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting narrative that routes the horror through a youth’s unreliable subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-scale and celebrity-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that satirizes modern genre fads and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family caught in past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: TBA. Production: moving forward. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and primal menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces drive this lineup. First, production that paused or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will compete across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first 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 this contact form the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the frights sell the seats.