Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across major platforms

This unnerving unearthly shockfest from writer / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric terror when outsiders become tokens in a satanic conflict. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of living through and forgotten curse that will reshape the horror genre this harvest season. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric suspense flick follows five young adults who awaken sealed in a secluded shelter under the dark sway of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a biblical-era holy text monster. Prepare to be immersed by a motion picture journey that merges raw fear with legendary tales, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay element in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the dark entities no longer manifest from an outside force, but rather internally. This echoes the most terrifying aspect of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat identity crisis where the intensity becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between innocence and sin.


In a isolated terrain, five characters find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly aura and possession of a mysterious person. As the protagonists becomes incapable to withstand her rule, detached and attacked by forces mind-shattering, they are confronted to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the time ruthlessly moves toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion builds and associations fracture, prompting each protagonist to scrutinize their personhood and the philosophy of free will itself. The intensity rise with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that integrates paranormal dread with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dig into pure dread, an force rooted in antiquity, filtering through our weaknesses, and highlighting a force that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure customers worldwide can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has pulled in over six-figure audience.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to international horror buffs.


Witness this heart-stopping descent into darkness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these chilling revelations about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





American horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. lineup weaves myth-forward possession, microbudget gut-punches, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Running from life-or-death fear suffused with legendary theology and stretching into legacy revivals as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most complex paired with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors lay down anchors with franchise anchors, in parallel digital services prime the fall with first-wave breakthroughs as well as ancestral chills. On the independent axis, independent banners is carried on the backdraft of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. From director Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer tapers, the Warner Bros. banner releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It drops in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy 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. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

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 is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. 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 new chiller slate: next chapters, fresh concepts, as well as A stacked Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre slate crams up front with a January wave, following that rolls through summer, and running into the year-end corridor, combining name recognition, new voices, and shrewd release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on mid-range economics, theatrical exclusivity first, and short-form initiatives that frame these films into all-audience topics.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This category has proven to be the sturdy release in distribution calendars, a lane that can accelerate when it breaks through and still buffer the liability when it misses. After 2023 re-taught executives that mid-range shockers can own the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries demonstrated there is room for many shades, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that perform internationally. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with mapped-out bands, a combination of marquee IP and untested plays, and a tightened attention on theater exclusivity that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Buyers contend the horror lane now acts as a wildcard on the calendar. Horror can arrive on open real estate, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the week two if the offering connects. Following a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects trust in that dynamic. The calendar gets underway with a thick January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while leaving room for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also includes the deeper integration of indie distributors and digital platforms that can grow from platform, generate chatter, and widen at the strategic time.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across interlocking continuities and long-running brands. The players are not just rolling another return. They are setting up continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a reframed mood or a talent selection that threads a upcoming film to a first wave. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing hands-on technique, physical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination provides 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two prominent entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will build wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever rules the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three separate entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is simple, somber, and commercial: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that shifts into a perilous partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit viral uncanny stunts and micro spots that hybridizes attachment and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an headline beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has proven that a visceral, physical-effects centered style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror charge that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio mounts two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a fresh restart 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 charge to serve both franchise faithful and first-timers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by immersive craft and archaic language, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus’s team has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a sequence that expands both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the later window. Prime Video pairs third-party pickups with international acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in library pulls, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival wins, scheduling horror entries on shorter runways and making event-like releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and prompt platform moves that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with established auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 lane with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is news ready, then pressing the December frame to move out. That positioning has worked well for elevated genre with four-quadrant hopes. 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 reasonable expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Look for 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 in tandem, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, the 2026 slate tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The pragmatic answer is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-flavored turn from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the packaging is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without extended gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta refresh that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that sing on PLF.

Annual flow

January is stacked. 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 closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

August into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s AI companion turns into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in Check This Out the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga get redirected here chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. 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 severe boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic swivels and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s tactile craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting story that frames the panic through a little one’s shifting POV. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. 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 reuniting creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 breaks out, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 period-precise speech and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces organize this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, offering breathing room for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, 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 visual texture, sound field, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.