Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

An unnerving ghostly suspense film from author / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an long-buried malevolence when unknowns become puppets in a supernatural ordeal. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of resilience and timeless dread that will reimagine terror storytelling this season. Guided by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick tale follows five individuals who come to sealed in a secluded wooden structure under the ominous grip of Kyra, a female presence occupied by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be gripped by a cinematic outing that weaves together soul-chilling terror with mystical narratives, streaming on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a long-standing pillar in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is radically shifted when the beings no longer appear outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the most hidden part of every character. The result is a edge-of-seat emotional conflict where the events becomes a merciless clash between purity and corruption.


In a isolated natural abyss, five characters find themselves marooned under the evil influence and curse of a shadowy woman. As the victims becomes incapacitated to escape her will, marooned and targeted by powers ungraspable, they are obligated to endure their worst nightmares while the hours brutally strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease rises and friendships fracture, requiring each protagonist to examine their personhood and the principle of self-determination itself. The stakes magnify with every instant, delivering a nightmarish journey that combines unearthly horror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to channel deep fear, an power that existed before mankind, emerging via human fragility, and testing a entity that threatens selfhood when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra asked for exploring something far beyond human desperation. She is insensitive until the takeover begins, and that metamorphosis is gut-wrenching because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering households in all regions can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has earned over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Make sure to see this bone-rattling spiral into evil. Enter *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these haunting secrets about the soul.


For sneak peeks, production news, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across your favorite networks and visit the official digital haunt.





American horror’s major pivot: 2025 in focus stateside slate fuses legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, together with IP aftershocks

Spanning last-stand terror steeped in scriptural legend through to legacy revivals set beside pointed art-house angles, 2025 is tracking to be the most variegated plus deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Top studios stabilize the year through proven series, as SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives set against primordial unease. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is fueled by the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A fat September–October lane is customary now, yet in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are disciplined, as a result 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige fear returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. targeting mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. unveils the final movement from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma as theme, along with eerie supernatural rules. The stakes escalate here, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The next entry deepens the tale, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, cornering year end horror.

Digital Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Directed by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, 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 dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No sequel clutter. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. 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. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Old myth goes broad
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror reemerges
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

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

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

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 brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The forthcoming 2026 genre lineup: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, together with A packed Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The arriving scare calendar packs at the outset with a January logjam, subsequently rolls through peak season, and well into the year-end corridor, balancing franchise firepower, novel approaches, and smart counter-scheduling. Studio marketers and platforms are betting on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that transform horror entries into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has become the surest tool in release plans, a pillar that can grow when it clicks and still limit the drag when it misses. After the 2023 year signaled to buyers that mid-range chillers can dominate pop culture, the following year kept energy high with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The energy pushed into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles demonstrated there is space for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to original one-offs that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that shows rare alignment across studios, with intentional bunching, a combination of legacy names and novel angles, and a renewed stance on release windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the genre now works like a utility player on the calendar. The genre can open on many corridors, deliver a tight logline for previews and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with demo groups that respond on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the subsequent weekend if the film fires. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 mapping indicates comfort in that equation. The calendar launches with a weighty January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a autumn push that carries into late October and beyond. The program also includes the ongoing integration of indie distributors and platforms that can platform and widen, fuel WOM, and widen at the strategic time.

A second macro trend is brand curation across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just rolling another return. They are aiming to frame story carry-over with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that indicates a fresh attitude or a lead change that reconnects a upcoming film to a heyday. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the high-profile originals are championing on-set craft, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a vital pairing of recognition and unexpected turns, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a legacy-leaning approach without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout rooted in recognizable motifs, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites 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 as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after mainstream recognition through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format enabling quick updates to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three defined releases. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is crisp, grief-rooted, and premise-first: a grieving man brings home an virtual partner that turns into a murderous partner. The date puts it at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and short-form creative that interlaces intimacy and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots 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 dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a title reveal to become an teaser payoff closer to the opening teaser. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His entries are branded as auteur events, with a teaser that reveals little and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning execution can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror hit that leans into overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has reslotted on this my review here title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is positioning as a new take 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 curious audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and monster design, elements that can increase premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, plants a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror centered on historical precision and archaic language, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles flow to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a ladder that fortifies both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, genre hubs, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about in-house releases and festival pickups, timing horror entries closer to launch and elevating as drops releases with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of focused cinema runs and rapid platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a selective basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with name filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 sequence with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to increase reach. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception merits. 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 as a pair, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchises versus originals

By share, 2026 leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit fan equity. The challenge, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the package is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Rolling three-year comps announce the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept clean windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium formats. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, lets marketing to connect the chapters through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The shop talk behind 2026 horror hint at a continued bias toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive get redirected here that emphasizes mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in deep-dive features and guild coverage before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and produces shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta recalibration that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which fit with fan-con activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a his comment is here week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can win the holiday when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s AI companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical effects and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 intimate haunting setup that routes the horror through a child’s shifting point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-scale and toplined eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that lampoons modern genre fads and true-crime obsessions. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 bursts, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family caught in old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. 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 historical diction and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 launches. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on social-ready stingers from test screenings, precision scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a austere, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and picture that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is name recognition where it counts, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the gasps sell the seats.