Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on premium platforms

An spine-tingling metaphysical shockfest from literary architect / director Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an age-old horror when unknowns become conduits in a dark ceremony. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of resistance and primordial malevolence that will revamp fear-driven cinema this cool-weather season. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and immersive film follows five strangers who regain consciousness stranded in a far-off shelter under the aggressive dominion of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a ancient Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be drawn in by a audio-visual experience that melds intense horror with spiritual backstory, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary narrative in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is twisted when the beings no longer develop from a different plane, but rather within themselves. This portrays the most terrifying dimension of all involved. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a perpetual fight between good and evil.


In a isolated outland, five characters find themselves marooned under the evil force and domination of a enigmatic female figure. As the ensemble becomes paralyzed to escape her manipulation, exiled and tracked by terrors unfathomable, they are made to stand before their soulful dreads while the deathwatch relentlessly pushes forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread rises and friendships dissolve, pressuring each soul to contemplate their core and the notion of liberty itself. The risk escalate with every heartbeat, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that integrates occult fear with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to uncover raw dread, an power beyond recorded history, feeding on human fragility, and challenging a spirit that strips down our being when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra was centered on something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that conversion is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing households across the world can be part of this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has attracted over six-figure audience.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, bringing the film to a worldwide audience.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For exclusive trailers, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule Mixes old-world possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in biblical myth to returning series set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated and intentionally scheduled year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios stabilize the year with known properties, simultaneously streamers stack the fall with new perspectives alongside old-world menace. On the independent axis, independent banners is riding the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: High-craft horror returns

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal Pictures starts the year with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. Slated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer eases, the Warner lot bows the concluding entry of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, builds out the animatronic fear crew, reaching teens and game grownups. It books December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streamer Exclusives: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is canny scheduling. No heavy handed lore. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered 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.

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

Dials to Watch

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

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
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Near Term Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The 2026 fright year to come: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, alongside A Crowded Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek The brand-new horror cycle lines up immediately with a January crush, before it unfolds through summer, and continuing into the holidays, balancing series momentum, new concepts, and tactical counterplay. Studios with streamers are relying on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and platform-native promos that frame these offerings into cross-demo moments.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has solidified as the sturdy swing in programming grids, a corner that can scale when it lands and still safeguard the risk when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year proved to studio brass that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can dominate audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with director-led heat and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films showed there is appetite for multiple flavors, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that play globally. The end result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a harmony of brand names and novel angles, and a tightened focus on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the genre now operates like a swing piece on the grid. Horror can debut on most weekends, yield a simple premise for creative and platform-native cuts, and outpace with viewers that appear on Thursday nights and keep coming through the next pass if the title works. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration shows comfort in that approach. The year launches with a crowded January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and into November. The layout also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, build word of mouth, and expand at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is brand management across interlocking continuities and legacy IP. The players are not just turning out another sequel. They are working to present threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a lead change that links a latest entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the helmers behind the most anticipated originals are championing tactile craft, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence hands 2026 a confident blend of assurance and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount marks the early tempo with two high-profile entries that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the focus, angling it as both a cross-generational handoff and a foundation-forward character piece. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a roots-evoking mode without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Count on a promo wave driven by iconic art, initial cast looks, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick turns to whatever rules genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, heartbroken, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that mixes companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s pictures are marketed as event films, with a hinting teaser and a second wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot creates space for Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a gritty, makeup-driven execution can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that maximizes worldwide reach, this page with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio deploys two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build assets around environmental design, and creature design, elements that can increase premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed films with global acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using timely promos, October hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival buys, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and elevating as drops debuts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a two-step of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to invest in select projects with acclaimed directors or A-list packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. 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 announced a standard theatrical run for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the autumn weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre 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 regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using mini theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Legacy titles versus originals

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate household recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is viewer burnout. The pragmatic answer is to brand each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and auteur plays keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the team and cast is grounded enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night turnout.

Three-year comps clarify the strategy. In 2023, a cinema-first model that maintained windows did not hamper a day-date try from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they change perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind this year’s genre forecast a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that spotlights tone and tension rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta inflection that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that work in PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. 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 somber counterpoint amid bigger brand plays. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited previews that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday card usage.

Title snapshots

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her abrasive boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the power balance of power inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting scenario that frames the panic through a preteen’s volatile inner lens. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime preoccupations. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography 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: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family linked to returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. 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 antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 value-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 capitalize on those pockets. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, audio design, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, fresh vision where it counts, 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, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.