Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One spine-tingling unearthly suspense film from scriptwriter / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primeval dread when guests become pawns in a fiendish conflict. Available October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful portrayal of living through and forgotten curse that will alter terror storytelling this spooky time. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie tale follows five people who arise ensnared in a hidden house under the dark dominion of Kyra, a female presence overtaken by a two-thousand-year-old religious nightmare. Be prepared to be immersed by a immersive presentation that intertwines gut-punch terror with timeless legends, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a long-standing foundation in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is twisted when the beings no longer originate from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the most hidden side of the protagonists. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a relentless contest between light and darkness.


In a forsaken forest, five youths find themselves isolated under the malevolent influence and overtake of a haunted figure. As the team becomes unresisting to deny her power, detached and pursued by evils unnamable, they are required to face their greatest panics while the moments without pause strikes toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and bonds crack, driving each participant to reconsider their character and the concept of conscious will itself. The consequences accelerate with every breath, delivering a fear-soaked story that combines demonic fright with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to dive into elemental fright, an entity beyond recorded history, influencing emotional fractures, and dealing with a presence that threatens selfhood when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra called for internalizing something unfamiliar to reason. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that pivot is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—so that households in all regions can get immersed in this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has gathered over notable views.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to horror fans worldwide.


Avoid skipping this visceral descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to uncover these ghostly lessons about human nature.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YACMovie across entertainment pages and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate Mixes archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, in parallel with franchise surges

Kicking off with fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in ancient scripture and onward to legacy revivals plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured as well as deliberate year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors hold down the year with known properties, concurrently digital services flood the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside scriptural shivers. In the indie lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A fat September–October lane is customary now, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, so 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Elevated fear reclaims ground

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

Universal’s slate starts the year with a statement play: a refashioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Granted the structure is classic, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Low budgets, big teeth

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

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

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

Franchise Horror: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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 lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next scare lineup: installments, new stories, as well as A busy Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The upcoming terror calendar clusters right away with a January cluster, subsequently carries through June and July, and well into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, new voices, and strategic calendar placement. Studios with streamers are committing to mid-range economics, cinema-first plans, and platform-native promos that frame these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent play in distribution calendars, a space that can expand when it clicks and still buffer the drawdown when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for studio brass that disciplined-budget chillers can lead the national conversation, the following year carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where returns and premium-leaning entries proved there is demand for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to filmmaker-driven originals that scale internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a grid that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of household franchises and novel angles, and a renewed stance on box-office windows that increase tail monetization on paid VOD and subscription services.

Planners observe the space now functions as a plug-and-play option on the grid. The genre can kick off on many corridors, generate a quick sell for ad units and vertical videos, and punch above weight with audiences that appear on opening previews and return through the second frame if the entry lands. Coming out of a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence signals belief in that equation. The slate begins with a busy January schedule, then uses spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall cadence that reaches into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The schedule also reflects the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and grow at the strategic time.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across unified worlds and long-running brands. Studios are not just releasing another chapter. They are aiming to frame brand continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a refreshed voice or a lead change that links a next entry to a initial period. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are embracing physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of known notes and invention, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a rootsy character-centered film. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a memory-charged strategy without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push rooted in iconic art, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will chase wide buzz through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, melancholic, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date positions it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to iterate on eerie street stunts and micro spots that fuses romance and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the early tease. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His entries are presented as marquee events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives the studio room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October see here interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel premium on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror jolt that leans hard into global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time orbiting lycan myth. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform plans for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that maximizes both FOMO and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and editorial rows to keep attention on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays nimble about internal projects and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of precision theatrical plays and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has shown a willingness to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is direct: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics 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 flagged a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Keep an eye on 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 together, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a French-tinted vision from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the team and cast is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns contextualize the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a dual release from performing when the brand was compelling. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, builds a path for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

Creative tendencies and craft

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror indicate a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers grain and menace rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that shine in top rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is stacked. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 comes February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to 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 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s digital partner turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 prickly boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting setup that leverages the fright of a child’s tricky read. Rating: to be announced. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

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 genre lampoon that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family snared by past horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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: undetermined. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why 2026 and why now

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will stack across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. 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 efficient band. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, 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

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.