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

A spine-tingling mystic fear-driven tale from screenwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an timeless fear when foreigners become pawns in a devilish contest. Launching October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of overcoming and ancient evil that will reimagine the fear genre this cool-weather season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric screenplay follows five figures who come to stranded in a far-off cabin under the oppressive control of Kyra, a central character controlled by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Prepare to be captivated by a screen-based event that merges gut-punch terror with timeless legends, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a iconic element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is radically shifted when the presences no longer descend from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This echoes the deepest facet of these individuals. The result is a relentless emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a merciless fight between good and evil.


In a remote terrain, five individuals find themselves trapped under the fiendish rule and curse of a haunted being. As the team becomes incapable to combat her manipulation, detached and pursued by unknowns beyond comprehension, they are forced to deal with their soulful dreads while the hours without pity strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread escalates and links shatter, coercing each survivor to reflect on their identity and the structure of self-determination itself. The threat accelerate with every second, delivering a frightening tale that fuses paranormal dread with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to awaken elemental fright, an evil from prehistory, operating within psychological breaks, and examining a curse that forces self-examination when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was about accessing something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that change is terrifying because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for streaming beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure horror lovers anywhere can witness this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its initial teaser, which has attracted over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this life-altering descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to dive into these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For film updates, production insights, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle American release plan blends biblical-possession ideas, independent shockers, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

From pressure-cooker survival tales grounded in legendary theology to brand-name continuations in concert with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned combined with tactically planned year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors hold down the year via recognizable brands, in tandem digital services saturate the fall with emerging auteurs paired with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is catching the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The fall stretch is the proving field, though in this cycle, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are precise, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium genre swings back

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

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

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts 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.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

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

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. 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. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The coming 2026 Horror cycle: next chapters, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar calibrated for goosebumps

Dek: The current scare season clusters from the jump with a January cluster, and then flows through the mid-year, and well into the year-end corridor, blending series momentum, untold stories, and savvy release strategy. Studios with streamers are betting on right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that turn horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror marketplace has proven to be the dependable move in studio lineups, a category that can break out when it breaks through and still safeguard the losses when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that mid-range shockers can lead mainstream conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and surprise hits. The carry moved into the 2025 frame, where revivals and premium-leaning entries proved there is appetite for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that seems notably aligned across the major shops, with planned clusters, a equilibrium of brand names and new pitches, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Executives say the category now works like a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can arrive on open real estate, yield a clear pitch for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and overperform with audiences that respond on first-look nights and stick through the second frame if the entry connects. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping indicates assurance in that engine. The slate begins with a weighty January stretch, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a fall run that extends to the fright window and into early November. The map also highlights the expanded integration of specialty distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared universes and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another follow-up. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a premium feel, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that anchors a next entry to a early run. At the parallel to that, the creative teams behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating in-camera technique, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of known notes and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket titles that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a fan-service aware framework without repeating the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave driven by franchise iconography, character previews, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will chase mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever shapes pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three defined pushes. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, sorrow-tinged, and concept-forward: a grieving man implements an machine companion that grows into a harmful mate. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew uncanny live moments and quick hits that hybridizes longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s work are branded as must-see filmmaker statements, with a opaque teaser and a later creative that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot affords Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy style can feel cinematic on a lean spend. Position this as a red-band summer horror shot that leans into worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is presenting as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build materials around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can amplify premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s horror titles head to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines licensed content with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the 2026 genre total. Netflix keeps optionality about own-slate titles and festival acquisitions, slotting horror entries near their drops and elevating as drops launches with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a laddered of precision releases and quick platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is crafting 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 offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a cinema-first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using targeted theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is brand erosion. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is centering core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand this website unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Rolling three-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not stop a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they alter lens and widen scale. 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot in tandem, provides the means for marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror forecast a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature craft and set design, which align with expo activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots my review here that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

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 heavier IP. The month caps 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 thick, but the range of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits 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 virtual companion grows into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss struggle to survive on a rugged island as the chain of command swivels and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting piece that frames the panic through a little one’s unreliable inner lens. Rating: rating pending. Production: picture-locked. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a young family snared by older hauntings. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and tighter 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 sleeper 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, and framing 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent where it matters, 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, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.