Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a nerve shredding chiller, launching October 2025 across top digital platforms

This haunting ghostly horror tale from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primordial evil when unrelated individuals become tokens in a diabolical ordeal. Dropping on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful saga of staying alive and ancient evil that will reshape horror this spooky time. Produced by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and immersive cinema piece follows five figures who come to caught in a isolated wooden structure under the malignant will of Kyra, a cursed figure possessed by a biblical-era scriptural evil. Arm yourself to be enthralled by a immersive adventure that merges gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a well-established narrative in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the monsters no longer originate outside the characters, but rather inside them. This portrays the shadowy element of all involved. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the tension becomes a brutal push-pull between righteousness and malevolence.


In a forsaken terrain, five young people find themselves trapped under the sinister control and infestation of a secretive character. As the companions becomes unresisting to combat her power, marooned and chased by terrors unnamable, they are compelled to battle their emotional phantoms while the time mercilessly strikes toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and links shatter, pushing each cast member to reflect on their self and the nature of self-determination itself. The pressure mount with every tick, delivering a terror ride that integrates spiritual fright with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to uncover deep fear, an power that existed before mankind, manifesting in soul-level flaws, and testing a will that redefines identity when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra asked for exploring something beyond human emotion. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure subscribers around the globe can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has earned over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, making the film to horror fans worldwide.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling path of possession. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to explore these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For cast commentary, on-set glimpses, and reveals from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit our horror hub.





Today’s horror sea change: calendar year 2025 U.S. lineup blends myth-forward possession, art-house nightmares, plus legacy-brand quakes

Beginning with life-or-death fear inspired by mythic scripture and extending to franchise returns paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned together with blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners stabilize the year with franchise anchors, in parallel SVOD players crowd the fall with new voices as well as ancestral chills. In the indie lane, the art-house flank is carried on the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are intentional, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. Booked into mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer eases, the WB camp unveils the final movement of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: nostalgic menace, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, stretches the animatronic parade, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It lands in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

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. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, from Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic currents go mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine 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 retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Forward View: Fall stack and winter swing card

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The forthcoming 2026 scare Year Ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for Scares

Dek The arriving horror slate lines up in short order with a January bottleneck, after that spreads through peak season, and far into the holidays, braiding franchise firepower, fresh ideas, and calculated counter-scheduling. Studios and platforms are relying on efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and viral-minded pushes that shape genre releases into water-cooler talk.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the bankable tool in programming grids, a genre that can spike when it connects and still mitigate the exposure when it misses. After 2023 proved to top brass that disciplined-budget scare machines can dominate cultural conversation, the following year continued the surge with filmmaker-forward plays and quiet over-performers. The tailwind carried into 2025, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for a spectrum, from ongoing IP entries to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a roster that is strikingly coherent across the field, with obvious clusters, a harmony of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened strategy on theatrical windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium rental and home platforms.

Planners observe the horror lane now works like a flex slot on the grid. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, yield a sharp concept for spots and short-form placements, and punch above weight with crowds that respond on Thursday previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the film fires. After a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration signals trust in that model. The calendar opens with a loaded January corridor, then plants flags in spring and early summer for alternate plays, while clearing room for a fall corridor that pushes into the Halloween frame and into post-Halloween. The program also illustrates the greater integration of arthouse labels and subscription services that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and scale up at the inflection point.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across brand ecosystems and established properties. Big banners are not just pushing another return. They are trying to present lineage with a heightened moment, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the in tandem, the helmers behind the most watched originals are prioritizing physical effects work, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy offers the 2026 slate a robust balance of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the films export.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile bets that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, steering it as both a cross-generational handoff and a classic-mode character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a heritage-honoring treatment without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Look for a marketing run fueled by heritage visuals, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick shifts to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an machine companion that turns into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with the studio’s marketing likely to revisit uncanny live moments and micro spots that threads devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are marketed as creative events, with a teaser that holds back and a next wave of trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to dominate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered aesthetic can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror rush that pushes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both diehards and newcomers. The fall slot provides the studio time to build marketing units around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can boost large-format demand and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror defined by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is strong.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles shift to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that maximizes both week-one demand and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed films with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using featured rows, October hubs, and curated strips to lengthen the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival grabs, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops debuts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a paired of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to invest in select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is tight: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for the title, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the October weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has delivered for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using small theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, the 2026 slate leans toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap franchise value. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The standing approach is to package each entry as a new angle. Paramount is emphasizing relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps contextualize the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that respected streaming windows did not foreclose a parallel release from hitting when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they reorient and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate telegraph a continued lean toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that underscores mood and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and technical spotlights before rolling out a teaser that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and spurs shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on creature execution and sets, which lend themselves to con floor moments and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel essential. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Release calendar overview

January is heavy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the menu of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth persists.

Pre-summer months tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by my review here superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can hit 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.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September this contact form 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s artificial companion turns into something perilously amorous. 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 prickly boss battle to survive on a cut-off island as the chain of command inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 re-envisioning that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that frames the panic through a child’s shifting point of view. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-financed and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes present-day genre chatter and true-crime manias. Rating: TBD. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored see here to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan bound to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and bone-deep menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. 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 out-earned straight-to-streaming landings. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 low-to-mid 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first dark-horse hit 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a 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 prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sonics, 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

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.