Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up ancient terror, a hair raising horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This bone-chilling metaphysical shockfest from scriptwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial force when strangers become pawns in a satanic ritual. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing portrayal of resilience and prehistoric entity that will redefine the fear genre this fall. Produced by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy thriller follows five unacquainted souls who are stirred caught in a isolated shelter under the malevolent manipulation of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a timeless ancient fiend. Be warned to be gripped by a immersive event that blends bone-deep fear with folklore, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a historical theme in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is flipped when the forces no longer originate beyond the self, but rather from their psyche. This depicts the malevolent facet of each of them. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a unyielding push-pull between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken wild, five individuals find themselves caught under the fiendish dominion and domination of a uncanny female presence. As the victims becomes defenseless to escape her will, left alone and preyed upon by forces beyond reason, they are made to face their darkest emotions while the doomsday meter without pity strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and associations disintegrate, requiring each character to question their existence and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The intensity accelerate with every heartbeat, delivering a fear-soaked story that weaves together demonic fright with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into instinctual horror, an force beyond recorded history, filtering through emotional fractures, and confronting a evil that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing watchers no matter where they are can be part of this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its first preview, which has earned over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Join this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to experience these ghostly lessons about mankind.


For featurettes, making-of footage, and promotions from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 U.S. lineup Mixes Mythic Possession, signature indie scares, paired with brand-name tremors

From grit-forward survival fare suffused with old testament echoes and including installment follow-ups paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated as well as calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. leading studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, even as premium streamers crowd the fall with new voices in concert with ancient terrors. In parallel, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the backdraft of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a confident swing: a modernized Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Led by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed 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 unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

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’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

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

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror retakes ground
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Laurels convert to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The oncoming fright year to come: returning titles, fresh concepts, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The new genre slate crams in short order with a January glut, after that carries through midyear, and running into the winter holidays, blending legacy muscle, creative pitches, and strategic counterprogramming. Distributors with platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and short-form initiatives that frame these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror filmmaking has become the bankable lever in studio calendars, a pillar that can scale when it connects and still protect the drag when it underperforms. After 2023 reconfirmed for buyers that cost-conscious shockers can lead the discourse, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and sleeper breakouts. The upswing moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles highlighted there is appetite for varied styles, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a grid that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a harmony of familiar brands and untested plays, and a renewed strategy on box-office windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the category now slots in as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, provide a grabby hook for marketing and platform-native cuts, and over-index with viewers that come out on opening previews and continue through the week two if the film pays off. Coming out of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates confidence in that engine. The calendar begins with a busy January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while saving space for a fall run that carries into All Hallows period and past the holiday. The gridline also reflects the continuing integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, fuel WOM, and expand at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and heritage properties. Studio teams are not just pushing another installment. They are setting up brand continuity with a premium feel, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a reframed mood or a casting choice that threads a new entry to a early run. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the high-profile originals are leaning into material texture, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing delivers 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and invention, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight pushes that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the center, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture telegraphs a nostalgia-forward campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run fueled by recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via 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 contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever shapes genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man brings home an algorithmic mate that escalates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that mixes romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the first look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a visceral, physical-effects centered treatment can feel cinematic on a middle budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 sustains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by obsessive craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s horror titles feed copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both FOMO and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and editorial rows to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about internal projects and festival grabs, securing horror entries near launch and coalescing around arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with established auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, upgraded for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a theatrical rollout 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 lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then leveraging the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception allows. Be ready for 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 in tandem, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchises versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and talent-first projects supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is anchored enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

The last three-year set frame the model. In 2023, a cinema-first model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a dual release from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. 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 shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through personae and themes and to keep assets in-market without extended gaps.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind this year’s genre telegraph a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that foregrounds creep and texture rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a first look that elevates tone over story, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which align with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

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 gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps 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 stiff, but the mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-October slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited information drops that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s intelligent companion grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. 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 demanding boss battle to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to menace, shaped by Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting narrative that filters its scares through a preteen’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. 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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three operational forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family this website and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will share space across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 value-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 press those advantages. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, 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 surface detail, acoustics, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.