Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A chilling spectral suspense story from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an prehistoric evil when unfamiliar people become puppets in a satanic ordeal. Hitting screens October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing story of struggle and age-old darkness that will reconstruct horror this scare season. Directed by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and gothic feature follows five figures who suddenly rise sealed in a wooded wooden structure under the ominous power of Kyra, a cursed figure dominated by a antiquated biblical force. Steel yourself to be shaken by a audio-visual ride that fuses deep-seated panic with arcane tradition, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a legendary theme in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is subverted when the spirits no longer emerge externally, but rather from their psyche. This embodies the shadowy facet of the players. The result is a riveting psychological battle where the conflict becomes a constant conflict between moral forces.


In a bleak terrain, five young people find themselves isolated under the dark effect and haunting of a unidentified spirit. As the group becomes submissive to oppose her grasp, abandoned and hunted by terrors unnamable, they are cornered to stand before their inner demons while the countdown unceasingly strikes toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear escalates and alliances collapse, compelling each individual to contemplate their core and the idea of free will itself. The intensity rise with every instant, delivering a frightening tale that combines mystical fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke ancestral fear, an darkness older than civilization itself, embedding itself in soul-level flaws, and challenging a evil that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra was centered on something beneath mortal despair. She is innocent until the entity awakens, and that shift is shocking because it is so internal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—delivering watchers internationally can experience this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its original promo, which has garnered over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, exporting the fear to a worldwide audience.


Avoid skipping this unforgettable voyage through terror. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these haunting secrets about the soul.


For bonus footage, special features, and insider scoops from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: the 2025 season stateside slate blends archetypal-possession themes, signature indie scares, alongside IP aftershocks

Spanning survivor-centric dread infused with near-Eastern lore and including returning series plus surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as the most textured combined with precision-timed year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Top studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, in tandem digital services crowd the fall with emerging auteurs alongside mythic dread. On the festival side, independent banners is fueled by the uplift of a peak 2024 circuit. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, however this time, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, so 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

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

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

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Digital Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

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

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a sealed box body horror arc starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. 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 likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Long Running Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

What to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming scare Year Ahead: returning titles, universe starters, alongside A packed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The brand-new genre calendar packs early with a January wave, after that unfolds through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, weaving brand equity, creative pitches, and calculated counterweight. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing smart costs, theatrical leads, and influencer-ready assets that convert genre titles into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has turned into the predictable release in release strategies, a vertical that can spike when it lands and still protect the liability when it falls short. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize audience talk, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam pushed into 2025, where revivals and awards-minded projects signaled there is capacity for a variety of tones, from series extensions to original features that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and digital services.

Marketers add the horror lane now functions as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can premiere on many corridors, supply a simple premise for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and overperform with demo groups that come out on preview nights and stay strong through the second frame if the film delivers. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping shows comfort in that approach. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that connects to holiday-adjacent weekends and past Halloween. The program also illustrates the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can develop over weeks, spark evangelism, and roll out at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand curation across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another entry. They are aiming to frame continuity with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that connects a next entry to a first wave. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are celebrating tactile craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That mix provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and surprise, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two front-of-slate bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, angling it as both a passing of the torch and a return-to-roots character study. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a memory-charged angle without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign fueled by brand visuals, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also reboots 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 chase mainstream recognition through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that grows into a lethal partner. The Check This Out date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit odd public stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered 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 final title to become an headline beat closer to the first trailer. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s pictures are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date gives the studio room to lead 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a visceral, on-set effects led execution can feel big on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror shock that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is calling a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can drive large-format demand and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in meticulous craft and language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is strong.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s slate feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both premiere heat and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video combines licensed films with international acquisitions and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and staff picks to prolong the run on aggregate take. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival pickups, securing horror entries near their drops and making event-like premieres with burst 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 count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, escorting the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at 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 membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate leans in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit legacy awareness. The watch-out, as ever, is overexposure. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-flavored turn from a fresh helmer. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the packaging is known enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent-year comps clarify the logic. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they pivot perspective and widen scale. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds grain and menace rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature work and production design, which play well in convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that land in premium houses.

Release calendar overview

January is packed. 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 marquee brands. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Winter into spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect 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 shuffled through big rooms.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited teasers that put concept first.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s digital partner grows into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven 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 far-flung island as the control dynamic inverts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a this content master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting premise that threads the dread through a youngster’s volatile inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A comic send-up that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new family linked to long-buried horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. 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 bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, 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 beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can make hay in 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 budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 breakout hunt continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 pattern and spread. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed 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 justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, acoustics, and cinematography 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 Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.