Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across major platforms

An eerie paranormal fright fest from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an ancient curse when outsiders become puppets in a fiendish conflict. Streaming this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of perseverance and primeval wickedness that will remodel genre cinema this season. Crafted by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and claustrophobic cinema piece follows five young adults who suddenly rise ensnared in a isolated lodge under the ominous manipulation of Kyra, a female presence inhabited by a antiquated scriptural evil. Be prepared to be captivated by a cinematic adventure that unites raw fear with folklore, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a classic motif in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the malevolences no longer arise from a different plane, but rather from within. This marks the grimmest dimension of all involved. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a intense contest between good and evil.


In a desolate landscape, five young people find themselves stuck under the fiendish presence and overtake of a unidentified character. As the survivors becomes incapable to break her manipulation, cut off and targeted by spirits beyond comprehension, they are thrust to endure their darkest emotions while the deathwatch without pause moves toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and partnerships break, demanding each participant to reconsider their values and the nature of self-determination itself. The tension grow with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that harmonizes demonic fright with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke raw dread, an force older than civilization itself, operating within human fragility, and navigating a darkness that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is unaware until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for public screening beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving subscribers internationally can experience this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a evolution to its original clip, which has earned over 100K plays.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Join this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these ghostly lessons about our species.


For featurettes, production news, and press updates directly from production, follow @YoungAndCursed across entertainment pages and visit our spooky domain.





American horror’s sea change: 2025 across markets domestic schedule melds old-world possession, art-house nightmares, alongside legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from pressure-cooker survival tales inspired by near-Eastern lore to franchise returns plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is tracking to be the most textured along with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. leading studios lay down anchors with familiar IP, even as platform operators pack the fall with debut heat set against ancient terrors. In the indie lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is buoyed by the carry of 2024’s record festival wave. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, so 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Premium genre swings back

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

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell anchored by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Helmed by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule launches the swan song inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma as narrative engine, and eerie supernatural logic. This time, the stakes are raised, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It posts in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale featuring Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural 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. 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 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 film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No overweight mythology. No sequel clutter. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes 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.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 Horror season: entries, filmmaker-first projects, plus A brimming Calendar engineered for chills

Dek The arriving terror year clusters up front with a January wave, after that spreads through the warm months, and running into the holidays, blending name recognition, fresh ideas, and strategic counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are embracing mid-range economics, theatrical leads, and buzz-forward plans that frame these releases into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

Horror has turned into the most reliable lever in studio lineups, a vertical that can accelerate when it hits and still limit the exposure when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year demonstrated to executives that disciplined-budget fright engines can lead cultural conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with auteur-driven buzzy films and slow-burn breakouts. The trend flowed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and critical darlings underscored there is capacity for different modes, from continued chapters to director-led originals that carry overseas. The result for the 2026 slate is a programming that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with planned clusters, a spread of established brands and first-time concepts, and a sharpened commitment on box-office windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and home streaming.

Studio leaders note the category now serves as a schedule utility on the release plan. The genre can open on many corridors, create a tight logline for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with moviegoers that lean in on early shows and continue through the second frame if the title fires. Following a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates trust in that model. The year commences with a crowded January run, then leans on spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that stretches into late October and into early November. The program also highlights the increasing integration of specialty arms and OTT outlets that can build gradually, generate chatter, and expand at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across unified worlds and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package story carry-over with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are doubling down on on-set craft, physical gags and specific settings. That fusion produces 2026 a lively combination of recognition and unexpected turns, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount opens strong with two front-of-slate titles that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture signals a nostalgia-forward mode without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive rooted in heritage visuals, early character teases, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will foreground. As a summer alternative, this one will chase large awareness through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three distinct entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is clean, melancholic, and high-concept: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that becomes a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to renew uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that threads companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a title reveal to become an fan moment closer to the initial promo. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are sold as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor gives Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a tactile, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel high-value on a disciplined budget. Expect a blood-soaked summer horror rush that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio rolls out two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is marketing as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot hands Sony window to build marketing units around universe detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can stoke deluxe auditorium demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror rooted in historical precision and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The distributor has already locked the day for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that fortifies both week-one demand and sub growth in the after-window. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library curation, using curated hubs, holiday hubs, and editorial rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix keeps options open about original films and festival buys, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a two-step of precision theatrical plays and fast windowing that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, elevated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then using the holiday corridor to expand. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Plan on 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 parallel, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By share, 2026 is weighted toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is audience fatigue. The preferred tactic is to package each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-tinted vision from a hot helmer. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and director-driven titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the assembly is known enough to drive advance ticketing and advance-audience nights.

The last three-year set illuminate the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept clean windows did not hamper a day-and-date experiment from succeeding when the brand was trusted. In 2024, precision craft horror surged in premium large format. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they rotate perspective and elevate scope. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters lensed sequentially, gives leeway to marketing to tie installments through protagonists and motifs and to maintain a flow of assets without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate foreshadow a continued shift toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in trade spotlights and guild coverage before rolling out a tone piece that keeps plot minimal, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which work nicely for con floor moments and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that center pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that benefit on big speakers.

Annual flow

January is loaded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the range of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

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

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion becomes something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished 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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 tough boss scramble to survive on a uninhabited island as the hierarchy inverts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 closed-door haunting setup that leverages the horror of a child’s uncertain interpretations. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed and headline-actor led paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively again. Logline: {A genre lampoon that targets modern genre fads and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned 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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further reopens, with a fresh family tethered to lingering terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 and why now

Three execution-level forces define this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more measured 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 drops. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 cost-efficient genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to news 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundscape, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is recognizable IP where it plays, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the shudders sell the seats.