Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streaming platforms

An eerie mystic nightmare movie from author / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an forgotten malevolence when outsiders become proxies in a diabolical ceremony. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing saga of overcoming and ancient evil that will resculpt scare flicks this spooky time. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic story follows five individuals who suddenly rise locked in a cut-off house under the ominous command of Kyra, a possessed female claimed by a millennia-old religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be captivated by a narrative ride that melds intense horror with ancient myths, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary tradition in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is reversed when the beings no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather internally. This represents the haunting element of the protagonists. The result is a relentless cognitive warzone where the tension becomes a merciless face-off between moral forces.


In a bleak forest, five teens find themselves caught under the evil effect and curse of a haunted spirit. As the youths becomes helpless to withstand her influence, left alone and followed by creatures ungraspable, they are thrust to reckon with their inner horrors while the deathwatch harrowingly winds toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and alliances break, prompting each figure to challenge their personhood and the principle of conscious will itself. The hazard accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that fuses paranormal dread with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to dive into primitive panic, an malevolence from prehistory, filtering through our weaknesses, and highlighting a darkness that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that turn is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for horror fans beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—offering watchers everywhere can survive this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first trailer, which has gathered over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, making the film to global fright lovers.


Make sure to see this visceral journey into fear. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to dive into these nightmarish insights about our species.


For featurettes, set experiences, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across media channels and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s watershed moment: the 2025 cycle American release plan integrates old-world possession, Indie Shockers, plus brand-name tremors

Moving from fight-to-live nightmare stories drawn from biblical myth to franchise returns and incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered along with carefully orchestrated year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors stabilize the year with established lines, even as streamers load up the fall with unboxed visions alongside old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is propelled by the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a modernized Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer winds down, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson returns, and those signature textures resurface: retrograde shiver, trauma as theme, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a title that can sell without classic marketing. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Economy, maximum dread

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn featuring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, 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 terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a calculated bet. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

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.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror comes roaring back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. 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 key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The approaching chiller year to come: installments, Originals, together with A packed Calendar tailored for frights

Dek: The arriving horror slate lines up from the jump with a January crush, from there spreads through summer corridors, and far into the year-end corridor, mixing franchise firepower, creative pitches, and smart release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are prioritizing tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate genre titles into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror filmmaking has emerged as the most reliable lever in studio slates, a lane that can accelerate when it hits and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year proved to leaders that modestly budgeted shockers can own the national conversation, the following year continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam fed into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and prestige plays highlighted there is space for a spectrum, from returning installments to one-and-done originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across players, with defined corridors, a combination of brand names and novel angles, and a renewed priority on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and SVOD.

Executives say the space now slots in as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can debut on a wide range of weekends, provide a sharp concept for trailers and TikTok spots, and punch above weight with patrons that turn out on advance nights and stay strong through the sophomore frame if the feature satisfies. Exiting a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 pattern exhibits confidence in that engine. The slate kicks off with a stacked January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while leaving room for a fall cadence that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and into early November. The schedule also spotlights the tightening integration of indie distributors and platforms that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and grow at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across unified worlds and classic IP. Studios are not just producing another installment. They are seeking to position lineage with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that flags a reframed mood or a lead change that bridges a fresh chapter to a classic era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the top original plays are leaning into tactile craft, practical effects and specific settings. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate releases that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a roots-evoking bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout anchored in legacy iconography, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build broad awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is crisp, loss-driven, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that unfolds into a harmful mate. The date places it at the front of a busy month, with Universal’s promo team likely to renew off-kilter promo beats and micro spots that blurs intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an headline beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. His projects are branded as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a next wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize have a peek at this web-site on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has consistently shown that a tactile, makeup-driven strategy can feel high-value on a tight budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror blast that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is marketing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and monster craft, elements that can fuel IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and period language, this time set against lycan legends. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that maximizes both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed films with global originals and brief theater runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in back-catalog play, using editorial spots, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival snaps, slotting horror entries on shorter runways and turning into events arrivals with quick-run 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 activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is curating a 2026 track with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is uncomplicated: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to increase reach. That positioning has shown results for auteur horror with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By count, 2026 leans toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The concern, as ever, is brand erosion. The near-term solution is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a fresh helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, this website 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is comforting enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that respected streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in large-format rooms. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they shift POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind these films foreshadow a continued emphasis on tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta recalibration that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel key. Look for trailers that highlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the variety of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can pop 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 rotated off PLF.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that trade in concept over detail.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

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 re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 severe boss work to survive on a uninhabited island as the power balance turns and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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 chill, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that channels the fear through a kid’s unreliable perspective. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-scale and star-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers modern genre fads and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family linked to returning horrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 language and ancient menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three grounded forces inform this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

There is also the slotting calculus. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and image-making 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, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, 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 late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the scares sell the seats.