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

This haunting spectral fright fest from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old terror when guests become tools in a demonic struggle. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of perseverance and forgotten curse that will revamp terror storytelling this spooky time. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and emotionally thick tale follows five people who snap to imprisoned in a secluded structure under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a millennia-old ancient fiend. Be warned to be enthralled by a filmic journey that blends visceral dread with mystical narratives, arriving on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a long-standing trope in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the dark entities no longer develop externally, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the shadowy aspect of the protagonists. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the conflict becomes a relentless fight between purity and corruption.


In a bleak woodland, five adults find themselves caught under the fiendish dominion and spiritual invasion of a unidentified person. As the companions becomes powerless to reject her command, disconnected and stalked by entities unfathomable, they are compelled to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the moments without pause runs out toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and relationships shatter, compelling each character to evaluate their core and the integrity of self-determination itself. The danger intensify with every passing moment, delivering a terror ride that marries otherworldly suspense with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to awaken raw dread, an presence from ancient eras, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and questioning a presence that dismantles free will when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the invasion happens, and that transformation is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers anywhere can be part of this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, giving access to the movie to fans of fear everywhere.


Experience this unforgettable descent into hell. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to acknowledge these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For teasers, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: calendar year 2025 U.S. rollouts integrates legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside tentpole growls

From fight-to-live nightmare stories rooted in old testament echoes as well as canon extensions alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is tracking to be the richest together with precision-timed year in years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. top-tier distributors set cornerstones through proven series, while premium streamers crowd the fall with fresh voices in concert with primordial unease. In parallel, the art-house flank is riding the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are methodical, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige terror resurfaces

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer wanes, the WB camp delivers the closing chapter from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led 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 dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. 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, led by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. 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.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: installments, standalone ideas, together with A packed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The emerging scare year clusters from day one with a January crush, following that rolls through the mid-year, and carrying into the year-end corridor, marrying legacy muscle, untold stories, and savvy counterplay. Studios and platforms are relying on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-driven marketing that position these films into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has solidified as the sturdy move in studio slates, a space that can lift when it breaks through and still mitigate the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 demonstrated to buyers that low-to-mid budget fright engines can galvanize pop culture, the following year kept the drumbeat going with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The carry fed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is an opening for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that carry overseas. The aggregate for 2026 is a slate that seems notably aligned across companies, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of legacy names and new concepts, and a refocused attention on release windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium video on demand and digital services.

Schedulers say the space now acts as a fill-in ace on the calendar. Horror can roll out on almost any weekend, furnish a sharp concept for creative and TikTok spots, and overperform with crowds that turn out on preview nights and stick through the sophomore frame if the movie works. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 layout shows belief in that model. The slate launches with a busy January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while leaving room for a autumn push that pushes into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The map also reflects the increasing integration of boutique distributors and platforms that can platform a title, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is series management across shared universes and heritage properties. The companies are not just greenlighting another installment. They are looking to package lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a latest entry to a foundational era. At the parallel to that, the helmers behind the most watched originals are returning to practical craft, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That mix delivers the 2026 slate a confident blend of comfort and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two prominent pushes that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a relay and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the tonal posture points to a heritage-honoring strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout leaning on recognizable motifs, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will pursue broad awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever tops the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is elegant, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an machine companion that escalates into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s team likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and snackable content that mixes devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are treated as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a subsequent trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to maximize 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led mix can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-and-grime summer horror charge that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio rolls out two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back 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 foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around mythos, and creature design, elements that can amplify premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on rigorous craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The label has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform news plans for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a structure that elevates both opening-weekend urgency and subscriber lifts in the post-theatrical. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with worldwide entries and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using editorial spots, horror hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about originals and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events go-lives with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a paired of selective theatrical runs and quick platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is curating a 2026 sequence 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 proposition is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a standard theatrical run for the title, an positive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Anticipate 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 together, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness brand equity. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in PLF. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to interlace chapters through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind these films hint at a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers mood and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big click to read more screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in craft profiles and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which play well in expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in big rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel news McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sustains.

Q1 into Q2 stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genetic code. 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 devastated man’s synthetic partner mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

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 encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-game 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 tough boss push to survive on a isolated island as the chain of command inverts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

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 retelling that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 intimate haunting story that pipes the unease through a child’s shifting subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets current genre trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family lashed to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. 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 time-true diction and elemental dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three execution-level forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and tighter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming landings. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. 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.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lower and 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, 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 keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, 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 Is Well Positioned

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.