Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

An terrifying supernatural nightmare movie from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primordial fear when foreigners become instruments in a cursed ritual. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching episode of struggle and archaic horror that will redefine terror storytelling this spooky time. Visualized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric cinema piece follows five individuals who regain consciousness imprisoned in a wooded shack under the sinister control of Kyra, a female lead claimed by a time-worn religious nightmare. Be prepared to be immersed by a screen-based experience that unites visceral dread with mystical narratives, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a well-established fixture in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is challenged when the beings no longer develop externally, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the most terrifying aspect of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal identity crisis where the emotions becomes a intense push-pull between right and wrong.


In a barren forest, five individuals find themselves sealed under the malevolent influence and grasp of a unknown character. As the cast becomes helpless to oppose her grasp, detached and hunted by creatures beyond reason, they are made to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the hours relentlessly runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and bonds shatter, pushing each figure to question their self and the foundation of self-determination itself. The tension intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines otherworldly panic with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon pure dread, an presence that predates humanity, emerging via soul-level flaws, and navigating a presence that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something past sanity. She is blind until the demon emerges, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so close.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring subscribers everywhere can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has been viewed over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, bringing the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Tune in for this soul-jarring fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to dive into these fearful discoveries about mankind.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and social posts from behind the lens, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie portal.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season domestic schedule interlaces Mythic Possession, indie terrors, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Beginning with fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with near-Eastern lore and including canon extensions paired with surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated plus strategic year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. top-tier distributors hold down the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously digital services saturate the fall with new voices plus legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is catching the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: 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. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, stretches the animatronic parade, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

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

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
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.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

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

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The next fear season: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar engineered for chills

Dek The incoming horror season loads immediately with a January crush, and then runs through midyear, and deep into the December corridor, balancing brand equity, new voices, and calculated offsets. Studios and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and short-form initiatives that convert these pictures into water-cooler talk.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has grown into the bankable option in annual schedules, a space that can accelerate when it resonates and still cushion the liability when it stumbles. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that responsibly budgeted shockers can command pop culture, 2024 carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and surprise hits. The momentum fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers demonstrated there is room for varied styles, from sequel tracks to one-and-done originals that play globally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a lineup that shows rare alignment across distributors, with intentional bunching, a balance of familiar brands and untested plays, and a tightened priority on release windows that feed downstream value on paid VOD and home platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on open real estate, provide a tight logline for creative and TikTok spots, and outpace with viewers that show up on first-look nights and stick through the week two if the entry works. In the wake of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 pattern exhibits comfort in that setup. The calendar begins with a thick January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a autumn stretch that stretches into All Hallows period and into November. The map also reflects the stronger partnership of indie arms and subscription services that can launch in limited release, stoke social talk, and scale up at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and established properties. Big banners are not just mounting another return. They are aiming to frame threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a reframed mood or a lead change that anchors a next entry to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the creative leads behind the marquee originals are leaning into tactile craft, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That combination produces 2026 a confident blend of recognition and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach conveys a classic-referencing strategy without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Anticipate a campaign fueled by classic imagery, character-first teases, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer alternative, this one will hunt large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick redirects to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an machine companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His entries are presented as event films, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, hands-on effects strategy can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror hit that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio lines up two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 players and fresh viewers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around world-building, and monster design, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror driven by immersive craft and language, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both FOMO and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video continues to mix outside acquisitions with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in deep cuts, using timely promos, horror hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops premieres with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a hybrid of precision theatrical plays and short jumps to platform that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has shown a willingness to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception justifies. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage household recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is fatigue. The workable fix is to position each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the approach. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date try from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and scale the storytelling. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to relate entries through character and theme and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The director conversations behind the 2026 slate signal a continued emphasis on real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil get redirected here Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that underscores tone and tension rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage 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 aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a slow-reveal plan and limited asset reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, rolling out carefully, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with heart.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

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: Done with U.S. run set. 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 prickly boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to dread, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that teases the fright of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-built and marquee-led occult chiller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family caught in older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. 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 historical diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 variable, fall window probable.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will jostle across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where 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 use those gaps. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, 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 reliable Thursday lifts, 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 tactility, acoustics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand imp source power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.