Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, debuting Oct 2025 on top streamers

One blood-curdling otherworldly suspense film from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an primeval nightmare when newcomers become puppets in a demonic contest. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of survival and timeless dread that will redefine the fear genre this scare season. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and atmospheric thriller follows five unknowns who regain consciousness ensnared in a off-grid cottage under the ominous command of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a prehistoric ancient fiend. Be warned to be shaken by a motion picture adventure that intertwines bodily fright with spiritual backstory, debuting on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a long-standing element in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is redefined when the demons no longer appear outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most primal dimension of the victims. The result is a gripping spiritual tug-of-war where the drama becomes a brutal battle between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the malevolent influence and overtake of a secretive woman. As the companions becomes submissive to break her influence, disconnected and hunted by spirits unimaginable, they are obligated to reckon with their greatest panics while the clock without pity edges forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread intensifies and partnerships splinter, demanding each participant to rethink their self and the idea of liberty itself. The danger magnify with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that combines otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke primal fear, an darkness born of forgotten ages, filtering through emotional fractures, and questioning a being that threatens selfhood when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something rooted in terror. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that flip is harrowing because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers worldwide can dive into this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has seen over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, giving access to the movie to a worldwide audience.


Experience this soul-jarring fall into madness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to explore these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For film updates, special features, and press updates directly from production, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror Turning Point: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, paired with legacy-brand quakes

Spanning life-or-death fear drawn from old testament echoes and extending to legacy revivals alongside incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most stratified and strategic year in years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. leading studios are anchoring the year with familiar IP, in parallel platform operators crowd the fall with new voices paired with mythic dread. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is drafting behind the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, distinctly in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, hence 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Slated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. rolls out the capstone from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, stretches the animatronic parade, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Tight funds, wide impact

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is virtually assured for fall.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overweight mythology. No franchise baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

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, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Brands: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trend Lines

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forward View: Fall pileup, winter curveball

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The oncoming terror slate: continuations, Originals, plus A packed Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The upcoming scare slate loads early with a January pile-up, from there extends through summer corridors, and far into the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, fresh ideas, and tactical alternatives. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on efficient budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these films into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has shown itself to be the sturdy move in annual schedules, a space that can spike when it clicks and still mitigate the risk when it misses. After 2023 reassured top brass that mid-range shockers can dominate the discourse, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The trend moved into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films highlighted there is capacity for many shades, from series extensions to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with obvious clusters, a blend of legacy names and new packages, and a tightened strategy on theatrical windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the category now acts as a swing piece on the release plan. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, supply a grabby hook for creative and TikTok spots, and over-index with demo groups that show up on preview nights and return through the second frame if the feature lands. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects trust in that model. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January schedule, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while making space for a September to October window that flows toward late October and into the next week. The layout also illustrates the tightening integration of specialty distributors and SVOD players that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and roll out at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and storied titles. Big banners are not just rolling another entry. They are looking to package lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the most watched originals are championing tactile craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That alloy gives 2026 a solid mix of brand comfort and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount plants an early flag with two marquee entries that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, marketing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-centered film. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a roots-evoking treatment without retreading the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave fueled by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear releases. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s promo team likely to reprise viral uncanny stunts and snackable content that blurs intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele projects are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror shot that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio lines up two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build assets around world-building, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify format premiums and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by minute detail and language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a tiered path that elevates both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with global originals and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on get redirected here their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, holiday hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and making event-like launches with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a laddered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 slate with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas corridor to move out. That positioning has paid off for director-led genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using limited theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, 2026 tips toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is elevating character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is grounded enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries point to a continued tilt toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that elevates tone and tension rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that keeps plot minimal, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature craft and set design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that elevate pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s 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 brooding contrast amid heftier brand moves. The month caps 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 stiff, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can play 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 run their PLF course.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a slow-reveal plan and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads 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 bereaved man’s synthetic partner turns into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric 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 severe boss work to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance flips and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that twists the fright of a child’s shaky read. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led spirit-world 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 spoof revival that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a unlucky family bound to past horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental fear. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why this year, why now

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, aural design, and picture 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.