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

An unnerving otherworldly terror film from cinematographer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an mythic curse when newcomers become conduits in a dark ceremony. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving depiction of endurance and timeless dread that will alter fear-driven cinema this October. Brought to life by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and eerie film follows five lost souls who suddenly rise ensnared in a secluded hideaway under the oppressive control of Kyra, a young woman haunted by a legendary sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be seized by a audio-visual ride that melds raw fear with ancestral stories, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a historical theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is reimagined when the monsters no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This portrays the deepest version of the victims. The result is a harrowing mental war where the events becomes a merciless face-off between light and darkness.


In a wilderness-stricken natural abyss, five adults find themselves cornered under the unholy effect and domination of a uncanny character. As the companions becomes defenseless to break her will, abandoned and targeted by forces beyond reason, they are forced to acknowledge their emotional phantoms while the final hour brutally pushes forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and teams erode, compelling each individual to reconsider their being and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The consequences intensify with every second, delivering a terror ride that connects occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to extract elemental fright, an entity from prehistory, emerging via mental cracks, and dealing with a will that erodes the self when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra needed manifesting something past sanity. She is in denial until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so private.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—providing customers everywhere can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to a global viewership.


Witness this haunted path of possession. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to confront these terrifying truths about the human condition.


For exclusive trailers, special features, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate Mixes legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside IP aftershocks

From life-or-death fear suffused with scriptural legend and stretching into canon extensions plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as the richest and precision-timed year of the last decade.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. leading studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, concurrently subscription platforms load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs and primordial unease. On the festival side, independent banners is fueled by the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, so 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal Pictures leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a refashioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a modern-day environment. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. From director Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

After that, The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. 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.

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 sequel clutter. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Laurels convert to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming spook Year Ahead: follow-ups, fresh concepts, alongside A loaded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The upcoming scare slate crowds immediately with a January glut, before it stretches through summer corridors, and well into the winter holidays, braiding series momentum, new concepts, and shrewd offsets. Studio marketers and platforms are relying on cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that pivot genre releases into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

Horror filmmaking has emerged as the sturdy tool in release strategies, a segment that can surge when it connects and still buffer the liability when it doesn’t. After 2023 reconfirmed for executives that cost-conscious chillers can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 held pace with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The momentum flowed into 2025, where returns and awards-minded projects showed there is capacity for different modes, from continued chapters to non-IP projects that carry overseas. The sum for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across players, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of known properties and new concepts, and a recommitted focus on theatrical windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now works like a schedule utility on the calendar. Horror can bow on most weekends, provide a grabby hook for trailers and reels, and outpace with audiences that line up on opening previews and continue through the second frame if the feature pays off. Emerging from a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration indicates trust in that logic. The calendar starts with a stacked January block, then exploits spring through early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a autumn push that pushes into spooky season and into early November. The calendar also underscores the increasing integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can grow from platform, create conversation, and expand at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is brand management across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. Big banners are not just making another chapter. They are setting up lineage with a occasion, whether that is a title treatment that suggests a reframed mood or a cast configuration that links a new installment to a heyday. At the meanwhile, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are prioritizing in-camera technique, real effects and concrete locations. That interplay provides the 2026 slate a solid mix of recognition and freshness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount plants an early flag with two prominent moves that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a lineage transfer and a foundation-forward character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance signals a classic-referencing approach without replaying the last two entries’ sibling arc. Count on a promo wave driven by legacy iconography, character spotlights, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will drive general-audience talk through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is elegant, loss-driven, and easily pitched: a grieving man implements an machine companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s campaign likely to revisit 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 assumed to be the feature developed under temporary 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 reserves space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on get redirected here October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are framed as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a next wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has proven that a tactile, physical-effects centered approach can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror surge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is billing as a reimagined 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 fresh viewers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can drive deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on Eggers’ run of period horror centered on immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s slate window into copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a structure that boosts both initial urgency and sub growth in the later phase. Prime Video balances licensed content with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using editorial spots, horror hubs, and collection rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries tight to release and staging as events launches with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical-first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas window to increase reach. That positioning has paid off for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception warrants. Look for 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 together, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to sell each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is known enough to build pre-sales and advance-audience nights.

Recent-year comps announce the strategy. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not preclude a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, art-forward horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The production chatter behind these films forecast a continued shift toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds aura and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature work and production design, which fit with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that emphasize pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is loaded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid macro-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 arrives February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited previews that center concept over reveals.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s core. Rating: this content TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: gothic-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 prickly boss try to survive on a far-flung island as the power dynamic swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fear, anchored by Cronin’s practical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 intimate haunting tale that channels the fear through a minor’s wavering POV. Rating: pending. Production: locked. Positioning: major-studio and star-fronted haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A comic send-up that satirizes in-vogue horror tropes and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a different family anchored to long-buried horrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action-forward bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

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

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental fear. Rating: not yet rated. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces structure this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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, Young & Cursed though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where 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 exploit those windows. 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 Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundcraft, 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, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.