Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on premium platforms

An spine-tingling mystic nightmare movie from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten dread when newcomers become puppets in a hellish conflict. Premiering on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and primeval wickedness that will revamp horror this October. Realized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and tone-heavy motion picture follows five people who regain consciousness caught in a wooded cabin under the malignant command of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a biblical-era holy text monster. Get ready to be captivated by a immersive outing that merges intense horror with timeless legends, arriving on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a legendary element in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is flipped when the demons no longer come from a different plane, but rather from within. This represents the deepest corner of the group. The result is a intense mind game where the plotline becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between light and darkness.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five souls find themselves imprisoned under the sinister rule and inhabitation of a unknown spirit. As the team becomes helpless to resist her manipulation, marooned and stalked by entities beyond comprehension, they are made to reckon with their soulful dreads while the time without pity pushes forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread surges and alliances collapse, forcing each participant to doubt their character and the nature of personal agency itself. The intensity surge with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together unearthly horror with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract raw dread, an threat rooted in antiquity, manifesting in mental cracks, and wrestling with a will that challenges autonomy when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra meant channeling something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so unshielded.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing customers globally can survive this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its first preview, which has collected over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Experience this mind-warping fall into madness. Confront *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to face these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For cast commentary, special features, and press updates from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule braids together primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

Ranging from fight-to-live nightmare stories saturated with biblical myth through to legacy revivals paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated paired with calculated campaign year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Top studios are anchoring the year with franchise anchors, at the same time streaming platforms pack the fall with discovery plays and legend-coded dread. At the same time, indie storytellers is riding the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, however this time, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are exacting, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal opens the year with a headline swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, instead in a current-day frame. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. landing in mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Plays: Modest spend, serious shock

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Then there is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. In the noise, Young & Cursed could cut through by staying hushed, then erupting.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. 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. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

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. 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.

Dials to Watch

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Big screen is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Autumn density and winter pivot

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

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming scare calendar year ahead: installments, filmmaker-first projects, And A hectic Calendar aimed at frights

Dek The emerging scare year clusters early with a January bottleneck, and then rolls through the mid-year, and straight through the holiday stretch, blending IP strength, untold stories, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and buzz-forward plans that frame genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the consistent lever in studio lineups, a pillar that can spike when it lands and still protect the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year demonstrated to studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can galvanize audience talk, the following year held pace with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and critical darlings demonstrated there is room for a spectrum, from continued chapters to original one-offs that travel well. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across the field, with mapped-out bands, a balance of legacy names and new pitches, and a reinvigorated strategy on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and digital services.

Executives say the genre now acts as a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can premiere on almost any weekend, offer a clear pitch for teasers and shorts, and outpace with fans that lean in on Thursday previews and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the entry satisfies. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while carving room for a September to October window that stretches into the fright window and into post-Halloween. The arrangement also shows the deeper integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and storied titles. Major shops are not just making another installment. They are moving to present threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a typeface approach that announces a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a next entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing hands-on technique, real effects and location-forward worlds. That fusion provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of familiarity and invention, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece entries that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-centered film. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the story approach conveys a fan-service aware approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run driven by heritage visuals, character previews, and a two-beat trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will lean on. As a summer contrast play, this one will seek wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever defines the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, sorrow-tinged, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the teaser. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. His projects are presented as auteur events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio launches two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both fans and newcomers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around mythos, and creature work, elements that can stoke format premiums and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by minute detail and period language, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video pairs acquired titles with global originals and select theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and featured rows to sustain interest on the horror cume. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival wins, scheduling horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a hybrid of selective theatrical runs and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will play for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 sequence with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is uncomplicated: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the fall weeks.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has paid off for prestige horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By weight, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is leading with character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a continental coloration from a buzzed-about director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Rolling three-year comps outline the template. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that kept clean windows did not prevent a dual release from working when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror outperformed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they rotate perspective and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Production craft signals

The craft rooms behind the 2026 entries point to a continued preference for tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a tone piece that leans on mood over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with con floor moments and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and sudden silences that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is packed. 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 quiet contrast amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a desolate island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting setup that refracts terror through a child’s volatile point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-supported and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that needles today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, this website 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: eying a summer shoot for late-summer slot. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action fireworks. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: specialty holiday horror poised for crafts recognition.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 exploit 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. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, aural design, and imagery 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shudders sell the seats.