Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A chilling supernatural thriller from dramatist / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an age-old dread when unknowns become vehicles in a diabolical struggle. Hitting screens this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing episode of staying alive and old world terror that will reshape fear-driven cinema this autumn. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy cinema piece follows five figures who wake up stuck in a isolated lodge under the menacing influence of Kyra, a central character possessed by a millennia-old holy text monster. Steel yourself to be ensnared by a immersive spectacle that integrates raw fear with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a iconic theme in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the malevolences no longer develop from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This mirrors the deepest part of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the events becomes a perpetual battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a isolated no-man's-land, five youths find themselves isolated under the ghastly effect and haunting of a obscure being. As the victims becomes helpless to fight her control, cut off and pursued by evils indescribable, they are required to endure their inner horrors while the doomsday meter mercilessly draws closer toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and alliances splinter, prompting each protagonist to reflect on their identity and the nature of self-determination itself. The threat rise with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that integrates supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to dive into primitive panic, an evil from prehistory, emerging via mental cracks, and wrestling with a entity that dismantles free will when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra involved tapping into something beneath mortal despair. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that transformation is gut-wrenching because it is so emotional.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences anywhere can get immersed in this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to international horror buffs.


Join this visceral trip into the unknown. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to explore these ghostly lessons about free will.


For previews, behind-the-scenes content, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YACFilm across your socials and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus stateside slate fuses old-world possession, underground frights, paired with IP aftershocks

Spanning pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by scriptural legend and including returning series together with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated paired with blueprinted year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses bookend the months with known properties, in parallel SVOD players pack the fall with fresh voices as well as ancestral chills. In parallel, horror’s indie wing is carried on the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner opens the year with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a clear present-tense world. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Under Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 follows. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma as text, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, buttoning the final window.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a calculated bet. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Legacy Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 spook slate: follow-ups, original films, together with A Crowded Calendar Built For chills

Dek The arriving horror calendar crowds from day one with a January cluster, from there stretches through June and July, and carrying into the year-end corridor, braiding brand heft, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to tight budgets, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The field has emerged as the most reliable counterweight in annual schedules, a segment that can scale when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget fright engines can dominate pop culture, the following year held pace with buzzy auteur projects and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum flowed into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects underscored there is an opening for multiple flavors, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across players, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and untested plays, and a re-energized eye on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Buyers contend the genre now performs as a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can bow on almost any weekend, create a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and outperform with ticket buyers that turn out on first-look nights and sustain through the sophomore frame if the picture hits. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 pattern indicates certainty in that playbook. The year commences with a crowded January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for audience offsets, while holding room for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and beyond. The grid also illustrates the greater integration of specialized labels and digital platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and roll out at the proper time.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Studio teams are not just making another installment. They are aiming to frame ongoing narrative with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a reframed mood or a casting move that anchors a next entry to a first wave. At the same time, the creative teams behind the top original plays are doubling down on physical effects work, on-set effects and distinct locales. That mix affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount plants an early flag with two headline titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a legacy handover and a heritage-centered character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a legacy-leaning framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Plan for a rollout fueled by iconic art, character previews, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will generate broad awareness through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick pivots to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is efficient, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to replay strange in-person beats and micro spots that interweaves devotion and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s releases are treated as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot allows Universal to maximize 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both core fans and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can fuel premium format interest 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 sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on immersive craft and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Platform lanes and windowing

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that amplifies both debut momentum and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video blends licensed content with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about internal projects and festival buys, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events releases with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 arc with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is simple: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has proved effective for craft-driven horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By volume, the 2026 slate skews toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The risk, as ever, is fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is spotlighting character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-inflected take from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the configuration is assuring enough to build pre-sales and early previews.

Comparable trends from recent years illuminate the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries 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 filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through relationships and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued lean toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. 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 larger brand plays. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sticks.

Q1 into Q2 prime the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can win the holiday when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. 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 demanding boss push to survive on a cut-off island as the control balance swivels and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting narrative that frames the panic through a kid’s flickering POV. Rating: pending. Production: finished. 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 returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fervors. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 detonates, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family tethered to residual nightmares. Rating: TBA. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBA. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: closely held. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. 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 period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three grounded forces define this lineup. First, production that paused or reshuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, 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 Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 lean-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 stealth overachiever 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 Young & Cursed Cineverse titles. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, audio design, and image-making 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, Lined Up To Scare

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.