Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One unnerving supernatural thriller from screenwriter / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an primordial force when strangers become tokens in a devilish conflict. Hitting screens on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of resistance and old world terror that will alter genre cinema this harvest season. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and tone-heavy fearfest follows five unknowns who wake up locked in a far-off wooden structure under the dark command of Kyra, a central character controlled by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Anticipate to be hooked by a filmic experience that unites visceral dread with ancestral stories, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring narrative in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the forces no longer arise from a different plane, but rather internally. This marks the deepest dimension of the players. The result is a intense cognitive warzone where the story becomes a brutal battle between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated terrain, five souls find themselves cornered under the possessive sway and spiritual invasion of a elusive spirit. As the survivors becomes unresisting to escape her dominion, abandoned and attacked by spirits ungraspable, they are thrust to acknowledge their deepest fears while the seconds ruthlessly runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and friendships break, pressuring each person to rethink their true nature and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The threat accelerate with every beat, delivering a horror experience that fuses otherworldly panic with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to dive into basic terror, an presence beyond recorded history, filtering through emotional vulnerability, and questioning a will that challenges autonomy when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the possession kicks in, and that turn is shocking because it is so close.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for audiences beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—so that users from coast to coast can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has seen over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling voyage through terror. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to dive into these evil-rooted truths about existence.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungAndCursed across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s tipping point: 2025 domestic schedule melds myth-forward possession, Indie Shockers, in parallel with brand-name tremors

Spanning survivor-centric dread suffused with primordial scripture and stretching into series comebacks together with acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most complex as well as deliberate year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. major banners bookend the months via recognizable brands, in tandem premium streamers saturate the fall with unboxed visions as well as ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the independent cohort is carried on the afterglow from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the other windows are mapped with care. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and now, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a confident swing: a refashioned 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 transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Despite a known recipe, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma as text, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the marquee stack is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, courting teens and the thirty something base. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. 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 appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, under Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 next scare lineup: entries, fresh concepts, paired with A jammed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek The brand-new horror cycle loads early with a January glut, before it flows through peak season, and straight through the holiday stretch, fusing brand heft, inventive spins, and well-timed release strategy. Studios and platforms are prioritizing efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and shareable marketing that position genre titles into water-cooler talk.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has solidified as the sturdy option in programming grids, a category that can lift when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year demonstrated to leaders that cost-conscious pictures can shape the discourse, the following year held pace with signature-voice projects and word-of-mouth wins. The momentum pushed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and awards-minded projects highlighted there is capacity for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a lineup that appears tightly organized across studios, with strategic blocks, a balance of legacy names and untested plays, and a sharpened focus on big-screen windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a utility player on the calendar. The genre can debut on most weekends, provide a simple premise for promo reels and short-form placements, and lead with fans that arrive on Thursday nights and stay strong through the next pass if the picture pays off. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence indicates conviction in that equation. The year launches with a front-loaded January window, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a September to October window that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The layout also reflects the expanded integration of indie arms and home platforms that can platform and widen, create conversation, and go nationwide at the proper time.

An added macro current is brand strategy across unified worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another continuation. They are shaping as lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that suggests a fresh attitude or a casting choice that reconnects a incoming chapter to a heyday. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That blend affords the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and novelty, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two headline entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the lead, angling it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture hints at a fan-service aware mode without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Plan for a rollout built on brand visuals, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will play up. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate four-quadrant chatter through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever drives the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three distinct projects. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is straightforward, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an machine companion that evolves into a killer this content companion. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to echo uncanny-valley stunts and short-form creative that threads longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a title drop to become an marketing beat closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are framed as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a gnarly, practical-effects forward style can feel prestige on a moderate cost. Frame it as a red-band summer horror jolt that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most global territories.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both devotees and newcomers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can fuel premium booking interest and fan-culture participation.

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 continues Eggers’ run of period horror built on meticulous craft and textual fidelity, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Platform strategies for 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ordering that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the later window. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in catalog discovery, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix stays opportunistic about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to launch and eventizing debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a hybrid of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is uncomplicated: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern audio and picture. 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 positioned a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception merits. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using select theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchises versus originals

By number, 2026 bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage cultural cachet. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is underscoring character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they rotate perspective and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot in tandem, creates this content space for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without extended gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind 2026 horror signal a continued bias toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that spotlights aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and generates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which align with booth activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the mix of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited disclosures that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s virtual companion becomes something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first 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 abrasive boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the pecking order swivels and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 intimate haunting scenario that interrogates the horror of a child’s shaky perceptions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody reboot that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: principal photography set 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 breaks out, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A clean reboot designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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 era-faithful speech and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming drops. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, controlled scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Calendar math also matters. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, 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 ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Strong 2026 Horizon

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, deliver taut trailers, guard the secrets, and let the chills sell the seats.