Age-old Evil awakens: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding chiller, launching October 2025 across global platforms

One blood-curdling spectral shockfest from literary architect / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an ancient horror when unknowns become victims in a malevolent experiment. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving tale of continuance and forgotten curse that will transform horror this October. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric story follows five figures who are stirred stranded in a cut-off lodge under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a haunted figure possessed by a biblical-era biblical force. Get ready to be gripped by a visual presentation that integrates bone-deep fear with ancestral stories, 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 legendary fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is subverted when the demons no longer develop from external sources, but rather from their psyche. This illustrates the shadowy aspect of the cast. The result is a riveting spiritual tug-of-war where the events becomes a intense conflict between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken forest, five youths find themselves cornered under the malevolent sway and haunting of a haunted spirit. As the survivors becomes incapacitated to withstand her influence, severed and tormented by presences unnamable, they are obligated to stand before their soulful dreads while the timeline harrowingly runs out toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease mounts and partnerships splinter, urging each figure to question their self and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The consequences escalate with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that harmonizes otherworldly suspense with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to explore instinctual horror, an malevolence born of forgotten ages, manifesting in mental cracks, and challenging a darkness that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra was centered on something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is soul-crushing because it is so raw.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for home viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving users globally can dive into this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has attracted over 100,000 views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, bringing the film to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this heart-stopping journey into fear. Stream *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to explore these chilling revelations about the mind.


For behind-the-scenes access, on-set glimpses, and news via the production team, follow @YACMovie across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar braids together myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, paired with IP aftershocks

Moving from survivor-centric dread suffused with biblical myth and onward to series comebacks plus surgical indie voices, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned together with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio majors are anchoring the year through proven series, concurrently subscription platforms stack the fall with discovery plays alongside old-world menace. On the festival side, independent banners is drafting behind the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, distinctly in 2025, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are precise, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s pipeline sets the tone with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: period tinged dread, trauma as theme, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The follow up digs further into canon, builds out the animatronic fear crew, reaching teens and game grownups. It posts in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

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 canny scheduling. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The new fright release year: continuations, new stories, paired with A jammed Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The current genre calendar crams from day one with a January crush, then unfolds through summer corridors, and deep into the late-year period, balancing name recognition, novel approaches, and savvy release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are betting on cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and buzz-forward plans that elevate these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has turned into the steady tool in annual schedules, a lane that can grow when it catches and still limit the risk when it does not. After 2023 signaled to top brass that disciplined-budget entries can own the discourse, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and sleeper breakouts. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers proved there is demand for many shades, from franchise continuations to standalone ideas that scale internationally. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a roster that appears tightly organized across players, with strategic blocks, a balance of household franchises and untested plays, and a reinvigorated priority on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and home streaming.

Planners observe the horror lane now functions as a wildcard on the calendar. Horror can debut on open real estate, yield a sharp concept for ad units and vertical videos, and outpace with crowds that respond on first-look nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the release delivers. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 configuration underscores confidence in that engine. The calendar starts with a loaded January block, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while making space for a October build that carries into Halloween and into early November. The calendar also underscores the greater integration of specialty arms and streamers that can launch in limited release, build word of mouth, and grow at the optimal moment.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and veteran brands. The studios are not just rolling another return. They are seeking to position ongoing narrative with a must-see charge, whether that is a art treatment that suggests a re-angled tone or a casting choice that threads a upcoming film to a first wave. At the concurrently, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are returning to real-world builds, real effects and site-specific worlds. That blend offers the 2026 slate a smart balance of home base and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

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

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the focus, signaling it as both a succession moment and a return-to-roots character-driven entry. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. A campaign is expected leaning on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three specific pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tight, melancholic, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that turns into a deadly partner. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that threads affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as marquee events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second beat that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror surge that leans into international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and general audiences. The fall slot affords Sony time to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel deluxe auditorium demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by historical precision and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on well-known grooves. The studio’s horror films transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and viewer acquisition in the downstream. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix originals and festival deals, confirming horror entries tight to release and turning into events arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown appetite to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

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 setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has announced a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The pragmatic answer is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that honored streaming windows did not preclude a parallel release from thriving when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror popped in PLF. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot in tandem, enables marketing to interlace chapters through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which fit with expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores 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 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder season window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a slow-reveal plan and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. 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 devastated man’s machine mate escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 prickly boss try to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s tactile craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting tale that routes the horror through a child’s uncertain perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted occult chiller.

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 reboot that satirizes today’s horror trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a young family linked to lingering imp source terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and ancient menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three workable forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or migrated in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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 pace and range. January is a sampler, 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 gnarly, 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 keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like 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 deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound field, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the fear sell the seats.