Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

One eerie spiritual fright fest from narrative craftsman / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an age-old force when foreigners become pawns in a malevolent struggle. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing tale of overcoming and age-old darkness that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this autumn. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric film follows five people who snap to isolated in a unreachable shelter under the malevolent will of Kyra, a troubled woman inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Get ready to be shaken by a immersive event that weaves together instinctive fear with arcane tradition, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is flipped when the forces no longer originate outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most terrifying corner of each of them. The result is a psychologically brutal moral showdown where the drama becomes a soul-crushing face-off between light and darkness.


In a barren no-man's-land, five figures find themselves trapped under the fiendish dominion and haunting of a unknown female figure. As the companions becomes incapacitated to escape her command, stranded and tracked by creatures inconceivable, they are pushed to acknowledge their darkest emotions while the doomsday meter relentlessly runs out toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and friendships splinter, requiring each person to challenge their true nature and the foundation of decision-making itself. The pressure magnify with every minute, delivering a paranormal ride that fuses paranormal dread with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover elemental fright, an force beyond recorded history, feeding on fragile psyche, and wrestling with a power that dismantles free will when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something unfamiliar to reason. She is in denial until the curse activates, and that conversion is shocking because it is so internal.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing customers everywhere can get immersed in this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Experience this life-altering trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these unholy truths about free will.


For exclusive trailers, production insights, and promotions straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror watershed moment: 2025 across markets domestic schedule melds biblical-possession ideas, underground frights, paired with series shake-ups

Ranging from survivor-centric dread saturated with biblical myth all the way to legacy revivals alongside acutely observed indies, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated as well as calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. Top studios stabilize the year by way of signature titles, even as streamers flood the fall with fresh voices and primordial unease. On another front, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween stays the prime week, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The fall stretch is the proving field, yet in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, which means 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s slate starts the year with a statement play: a modernized Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. With Leigh Whannell at the helm and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner’s schedule releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: 70s style chill, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. Here the stakes rise, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streamer Exclusives: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, 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.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No swollen lore. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed 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.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
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.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The coming 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: next chapters, non-franchise titles, And A packed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The incoming horror season loads up front with a January crush, subsequently runs through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, braiding series momentum, inventive spins, and calculated alternatives. The major players are leaning into right-sized spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the most reliable tool in studio lineups, a segment that can expand when it hits and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught top brass that efficiently budgeted chillers can drive pop culture, 2024 continued the surge with visionary-driven titles and slow-burn breakouts. The tailwind extended into 2025, where returns and elevated films signaled there is room for several lanes, from ongoing IP entries to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a slate that appears tightly organized across the market, with obvious clusters, a harmony of known properties and novel angles, and a re-energized commitment on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home platforms.

Schedulers say the genre now serves as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can roll out on open real estate, provide a simple premise for promo reels and social clips, and overperform with fans that lean in on early shows and maintain momentum through the next pass if the film hits. Emerging from a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a weighty January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for counterprogramming, while reserving space for a October build that flows toward Halloween and into early November. The gridline also highlights the ongoing integration of indie arms and OTT outlets that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and move wide at the proper time.

A second macro trend is brand curation across shared universes and established properties. The studios are not just greenlighting another follow-up. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a tonal shift or a casting choice that reconnects a fresh chapter to a foundational era. At the very same time, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and place-driven backdrops. That pairing produces 2026 a strong blend of known notes and novelty, which is the formula for international play.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount defines the early cadence with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the lead, framing it as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking framework without replaying the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave built on classic imagery, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm timed to late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will lean on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will hunt general-audience talk through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever leads genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tidy, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that threads devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele titles are marketed as filmmaker events, with a concept-forward tease and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, hands-on effects execution can feel top-tier on a disciplined budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that emphasizes global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio rolls out two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, extending a dependable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can accelerate premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is warm.

Streaming windows and tactics

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a structure that expands both debut momentum and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video stitches together acquired titles with worldwide entries and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in catalog engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and curated strips to increase tail value on lifetime take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival snaps, timing horror entries tight to release and staging as events premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a staged of targeted theatrical exposure and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two IP 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 haunting, Check This Out fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern mix and grade. 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 announced a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, managing the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the Christmas corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using small theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By number, 2026 bends toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and auteur plays keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a day-date move from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift 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-step approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without long gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that centers grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which fit with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 brooding contrast amid headline IP. The month concludes 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 legit, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May stage summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot 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 backed by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card redemption.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s artificial companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed 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 journeys back 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: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the power balance flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that channels the fear through a young child’s uncertain internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true crime fixations. Rating: undetermined. Production: shoot planned 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 flares, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A new start designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. 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 raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify repeatable beats from test screenings, metered scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, providing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will cluster across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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 leverage those opportunities. 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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 detail, audio design, and visuals 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 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.