Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a pulse pounding thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A chilling ghostly terror film from dramatist / director Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval force when drifters become subjects in a malevolent ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of overcoming and forgotten curse that will alter scare flicks this harvest season. Crafted by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic screenplay follows five unknowns who are stirred caught in a unreachable hideaway under the ominous will of Kyra, a cursed figure inhabited by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a filmic outing that weaves together soul-chilling terror with timeless legends, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a well-established trope in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is turned on its head when the forces no longer emerge outside their bodies, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most terrifying side of every character. The result is a emotionally raw internal warfare where the emotions becomes a constant clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken wild, five figures find themselves isolated under the malevolent control and grasp of a mysterious figure. As the characters becomes vulnerable to fight her power, exiled and tormented by evils beyond reason, they are thrust to stand before their core terrors while the moments ruthlessly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and alliances crack, prompting each cast member to examine their essence and the philosophy of independent thought itself. The intensity amplify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that connects unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to tap into primal fear, an curse beyond time, manifesting in inner turmoil, and highlighting a spirit that strips down our being when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is haunting because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing households everywhere can experience this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Mark your calendar for this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these evil-rooted truths about the soul.


For behind-the-scenes access, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 season U.S. release slate integrates myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, and brand-name tremors

Moving from grit-forward survival fare rooted in near-Eastern lore and including brand-name continuations alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is tracking to be horror’s most layered along with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors set cornerstones through proven series, in parallel premium streamers pack the fall with new perspectives together with ancestral chills. In parallel, the art-house flank is drafting behind the afterglow of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A fat September–October lane is customary now, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner starts the year with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. targeting 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 novel refit as minimal menace. Under Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson resumes command, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. The bar is raised this go, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. 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. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No legacy baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

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 scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The next scare year to come: Sequels, fresh concepts, And A packed Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek The upcoming scare slate builds right away with a January pile-up, following that carries through the warm months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, braiding series momentum, original angles, and data-minded counterplay. Studios and platforms are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and platform-native promos that pivot these films into four-quadrant talking points.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the steady play in annual schedules, a corner that can spike when it lands and still insulate the drawdown when it underperforms. After 2023 reminded strategy teams that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can dominate the discourse, the following year carried the beat with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The energy fed into 2025, where re-entries and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that play globally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across distributors, with intentional bunching, a spread of marquee IP and new concepts, and a re-energized stance on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the horror lane now acts as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, furnish a grabby hook for teasers and TikTok spots, and outstrip with viewers that respond on Thursday previews and stick through the week two if the entry lands. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals belief in that equation. The slate begins with a front-loaded January band, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a autumn push that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and platforms that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and scale up at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The companies are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a tonal shift or a casting choice that connects a next entry to a early run. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring hands-on technique, on-set effects and distinct locales. That interplay produces the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount plants an early flag with two big-ticket moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, presenting it as both a baton pass and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture hints at a roots-evoking bent without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push driven by iconic art, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick reframes to whatever drives the discourse that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, grief-rooted, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that becomes a fatal companion. The date positions it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew eerie street stunts and bite-size content that fuses attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are positioned as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot offers Universal room to lead 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, on-set effects led method can feel elevated on a tight budget. Frame it as a gore-forward summer horror shot that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is marketing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build promo materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can stoke large-format demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that amplifies both debut momentum and sign-up spikes in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together library titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in catalog engagement, using timely promos, horror hubs, and programmed rows to maximize the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and making event-like releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 slate with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a standard theatrical run for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate leans toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to frame each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-accented approach from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is known enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years clarify the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not obstruct a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-step approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The craft rooms behind these films suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism 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 geared for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a More about the author runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner shifts into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the chain of command upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting premise that plays with the terror of a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family lashed to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three hands-on forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, select scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April weblink restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.