Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

This spine-tingling spectral fright fest from scriptwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an timeless terror when unrelated individuals become pawns in a hellish experiment. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish depiction of continuance and prehistoric entity that will revamp terror storytelling this scare season. Realized by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive suspense flick follows five strangers who suddenly rise ensnared in a secluded hideaway under the oppressive sway of Kyra, a central character dominated by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Be warned to be enthralled by a theatrical experience that merges raw fear with folklore, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a classic foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is subverted when the forces no longer descend outside the characters, but rather from their core. This portrays the grimmest corner of the group. The result is a emotionally raw mind game where the narrative becomes a soul-crushing tug-of-war between heaven and hell.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five campers find themselves marooned under the dark dominion and possession of a obscure female presence. As the survivors becomes powerless to combat her rule, detached and stalked by powers unfathomable, they are pushed to deal with their inner horrors while the seconds without pause edges forward toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion rises and ties shatter, pressuring each individual to scrutinize their identity and the structure of personal agency itself. The stakes rise with every short lapse, delivering a fear-soaked story that blends otherworldly suspense with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to evoke primal fear, an darkness beyond time, filtering through psychological breaks, and navigating a darkness that peels away humanity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is innocent until the takeover begins, and that transformation is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for on-demand beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing fans anywhere can witness this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has garnered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Experience this mind-warping spiral into evil. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YACMovie across platforms and visit the film’s website.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. rollouts integrates archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, alongside brand-name tremors

Moving from life-or-death fear infused with primordial scripture as well as franchise returns set beside focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the richest along with tactically planned year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners hold down the year by way of signature titles, as platform operators front-load the fall with fresh voices alongside scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the echoes of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, though in this cycle, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are precise, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: The Return of Prestige Fear

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 scales the plan.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Steered by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Guided by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: nostalgic menace, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by 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. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. 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.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. 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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 genre release year: installments, filmmaker-first projects, plus A packed Calendar aimed at Scares

Dek: The new genre year stacks early with a January pile-up, from there carries through June and July, and well into the late-year period, braiding brand heft, inventive spins, and savvy release strategy. The major players are doubling down on mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that pivot these films into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This category has proven to be the most reliable tool in annual schedules, a pillar that can scale when it lands and still cushion the losses when it doesn’t. After 2023 reminded studio brass that mid-range shockers can shape audience talk, 2024 continued the surge with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The trend extended into 2025, where revived properties and premium-leaning entries confirmed there is space for varied styles, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The sum for the 2026 slate is a grid that appears tightly organized across the field, with intentional bunching, a mix of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a sharpened attention on big-screen windows that feed downstream value on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Schedulers say the category now performs as a utility player on the grid. Horror can debut on many corridors, deliver a grabby hook for creative and vertical videos, and lead with audiences that respond on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the offering pays off. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 pattern underscores trust in that approach. The slate launches with a front-loaded January run, then turns to spring and early summer for counterweight, while making space for a fall run that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The map also illustrates the greater integration of specialized labels and subscription services that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and widen at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Major shops are not just mounting another sequel. They are working to present story carry-over with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that flags a re-angled tone or a casting move that reconnects a latest entry to a initial period. At the meanwhile, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are favoring material texture, practical gags and grounded locations. That blend produces 2026 a healthy mix of known notes and discovery, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket bets that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, signaling it as both a handoff and a foundation-forward relationship-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture suggests a throwback-friendly framework without going over the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in signature symbols, first-look character reveals, and a tease cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will pursue large awareness through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick updates to whatever owns the discourse that spring.

Universal has three defined projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an synthetic partner that escalates into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a busy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to iterate on uncanny-valley stunts and short reels that threads intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His entries are positioned as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives the studio room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has established that a tactile, practical-effects forward aesthetic can feel deluxe on a middle budget. Look for a splatter summer horror jolt that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is selling 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 charge to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build marketing units around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf have a peek at these guys on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror centered on historical precision and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal titles transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that expands both premiere heat and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global pickups and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library curation, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and featured rows to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about original films and festival snaps, securing horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of focused cinema runs 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 activating community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation spikes.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 sequence with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clean: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday frame to open out. That positioning has paid off for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is familiar enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the plan. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from delivering when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium large format. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they shift POV and expand the canvas. 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 two-step approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance check over here that squares with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that highlights texture and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead weblink Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a self-referential reset that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature design and production design, which are ideal for expo activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that highlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar cadence

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden 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 TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s virtual companion turns into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 modern reconception that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting piece that manipulates the dread of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-financed and star-led occult chiller.

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 comic send-up that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. 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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a unlucky family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 time-true diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. 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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or shifted in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where modest-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 shock over-performer 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc 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 beat and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sonics, 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.

2026, Ready To Roar

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.