Age-old Terror Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling horror feature, launching October 2025 across global platforms

This terrifying mystic fear-driven tale from screenwriter / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric evil when guests become pawns in a devilish trial. Debuting October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful journey of staying alive and ancient evil that will resculpt scare flicks this ghoul season. Guided by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and tone-heavy thriller follows five figures who regain consciousness stranded in a wooded cabin under the unfriendly influence of Kyra, a central character consumed by a legendary sacred-era entity. Be prepared to be enthralled by a visual adventure that harmonizes raw fear with folklore, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is inverted when the monsters no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather within themselves. This embodies the darkest version of the victims. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the plotline becomes a relentless contest between innocence and sin.


In a haunting no-man's-land, five adults find themselves caught under the possessive influence and spiritual invasion of a unknown entity. As the ensemble becomes incapable to fight her rule, severed and chased by spirits unfathomable, they are thrust to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch ruthlessly moves toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and links collapse, coercing each member to evaluate their character and the nature of conscious will itself. The danger mount with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that marries otherworldly panic with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke primitive panic, an evil that existed before mankind, operating within emotional vulnerability, and exposing a force that tests the soul when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the demon emerges, and that evolution is harrowing because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—ensuring audiences globally can face this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has received over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, extending the thrill to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this unforgettable exploration of dread. Face *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to witness these ghostly lessons about inner darkness.


For cast commentary, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across platforms and visit the film’s website.





U.S. horror’s decisive shift: 2025 in focus stateside slate braids together biblical-possession ideas, festival-born jolts, and legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with last-stand terror steeped in scriptural legend all the way to installment follow-ups paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the genre’s most multifaceted paired with strategic year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Major studios stabilize the year using marquee IP, concurrently premium streamers saturate the fall with debut heat set against ancestral chills. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is buoyed by the afterglow from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a modernized Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered 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. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The new chapter enriches the lore, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No legacy baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, 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 first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, 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 sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
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.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

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

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The approaching spook cycle: returning titles, universe starters, as well as A jammed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The incoming genre slate crowds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then spreads through peak season, and straight through the holiday frame, combining IP strength, new concepts, and calculated counter-scheduling. Major distributors and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical leads, and shareable marketing that pivot these films into national conversation.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has established itself as the most reliable lever in distribution calendars, a space that can lift when it clicks and still safeguard the drag when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for top brass that lean-budget chillers can shape pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The run translated to 2025, where legacy revivals and premium-leaning entries underscored there is space for a spectrum, from continued chapters to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a calendar that presents tight coordination across players, with planned clusters, a blend of household franchises and original hooks, and a re-energized strategy on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the category now performs as a utility player on the grid. Horror can open on virtually any date, yield a clear pitch for previews and short-form placements, and over-index with patrons that come out on opening previews and sustain through the next weekend if the film delivers. On the heels of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 plan telegraphs conviction in that equation. The year rolls out with a busy January block, then turns to spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a September to October window that stretches into All Hallows period and afterwards. The program also shows the increasing integration of specialized labels and OTT outlets that can platform a title, generate chatter, and move wide at the sweet spot.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across shared IP webs and legacy IP. The studios are not just greenlighting another installment. They are looking to package brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a refreshed voice or a lead change that bridges a new installment to a original cycle. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are returning to in-camera technique, on-set effects and location-forward worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of familiarity and newness, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the front, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ sisters storyline. A campaign is expected stacked with recognizable motifs, intro reveals, and a tiered teaser plan landing toward 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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will seek broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick shifts to whatever dominates trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, soulful, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that melds longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an PR pop closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are treated as filmmaker events, with a opaque teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-October frame affords Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, practical-first aesthetic can feel big on a tight budget. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio places two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both players and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

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 carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in minute detail and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that optimizes both debut momentum and sign-up momentum in the later window. Prime Video pairs licensed content with worldwide entries and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using featured rows, fright rows, and staff picks to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps options open about first-party entries and festival pickups, timing horror entries near their drops and turning into events releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional cinema play for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to open out. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using select theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to sell each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that kept streaming intact did not deter a parallel release from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and grow scope. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through personae and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Technique and craft currents

The creative meetings behind 2026 horror suggest a continued lean toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and technical spotlights before rolling out a preview that elevates tone over story, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience navigate here clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster work and world-building, which play well in booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the spread of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth persists.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. 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 finished their premium pass.

Late summer into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event books October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card redemption.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s machine mate escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 difficult boss work to survive on a remote island as the hierarchy turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting setup that channels the fear through a young child’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-grade and marquee-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family bound to lingering terrors. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed 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. Early corridors have a peek at these guys for family and capes are leaner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will trade weekends across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 stealth-hit search 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, and camera work 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.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, hold the mystery, and let the gasps sell the seats.