Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons ancient dread, a spine tingling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across top streaming platforms

A terrifying ghostly fear-driven tale from writer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an forgotten horror when guests become tools in a supernatural experiment. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense saga of struggle and forgotten curse that will reconstruct horror this October. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and gothic screenplay follows five lost souls who awaken trapped in a remote wooden structure under the malignant rule of Kyra, a female lead overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a visual outing that harmonizes soul-chilling terror with mythic lore, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored fixture in cinema. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is radically shifted when the monsters no longer develop from beyond, but rather within themselves. This represents the most primal dimension of the victims. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the suspense becomes a soul-crushing contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a desolate no-man's-land, five campers find themselves isolated under the malicious aura and haunting of a mysterious spirit. As the youths becomes vulnerable to fight her rule, severed and chased by evils impossible to understand, they are compelled to deal with their soulful dreads while the time harrowingly moves toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension grows and connections shatter, coercing each person to evaluate their identity and the principle of autonomy itself. The hazard surge with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that combines ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore instinctual horror, an entity rooted in antiquity, manifesting in emotional vulnerability, and examining a being that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing subscribers anywhere can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has garnered over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, presenting the nightmare to international horror buffs.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to witness these chilling revelations about free will.


For featurettes, production news, and reveals from the creators, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Instagram and Twitter and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Across grit-forward survival fare drawn from primordial scripture and including legacy revivals and focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most stratified and calculated campaign year in ten years.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, even as platform operators prime the fall with emerging auteurs alongside old-world menace. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The fall stretch is the proving field, distinctly in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are surgical, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Elevated fear reclaims ground

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with an audacious swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Under Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

At summer’s close, Warner Bros. Pictures delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a close quarters body horror study featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No IP hangover. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Legacy Brands: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, 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. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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 Horror Is Mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

The Road Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 spook Year Ahead: brand plays, Originals, paired with A hectic Calendar tailored for nightmares

Dek: The new scare year lines up from day one with a January pile-up, before it runs through summer, and far into the late-year period, blending IP strength, new concepts, and smart calendar placement. Studios and platforms are leaning into responsible budgets, big-screen-first runs, and viral-minded pushes that turn the slate’s entries into all-audience topics.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has established itself as the steady counterweight in distribution calendars, a corner that can lift when it performs and still limit the drawdown when it does not. After the 2023 year signaled to strategy teams that modestly budgeted scare machines can galvanize pop culture, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam fed into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films proved there is a lane for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The net effect for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across studios, with planned clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived emphasis on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Executives say the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can open on almost any weekend, yield a sharp concept for marketing and shorts, and overperform with audiences that lean in on opening previews and hold through the sophomore frame if the title delivers. In the wake of a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern indicates confidence in that engine. The slate begins with a weighty January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a fall cadence that carries into the fright window and afterwards. The map also spotlights the stronger partnership of indie distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the strategic time.

A companion trend is series management across shared universes and established properties. Distribution groups are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that telegraphs a fresh attitude or a casting choice that connects a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the auteurs behind the top original plays are prioritizing material texture, practical gags and place-driven backdrops. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is how the genre sells abroad.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, positioning the film as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance announces a memory-charged strategy without going over the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in brand visuals, first images of characters, and a tease cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will generate wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever dominates the his comment is here discourse that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that mutates into a harmful mate. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to recreate eerie street stunts and short-form creative that hybridizes devotion and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a branding reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot affords Universal to command 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, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has proven that a blood-soaked, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what Sony is calling a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around mythos, and creature work, elements that can increase large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already set the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. The Universal horror run flow to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and editorial rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps optionality about first-party entries and festival deals, securing horror entries near launch and framing as events drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a laddered of focused cinema runs and fast windowing that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late stretch.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is brand erosion. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is steady enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that kept clean windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from paying off when the brand was compelling. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters lensed back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind this year’s genre hint at a continued move 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 matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature and environment design, which lend themselves to convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel essential. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

How the year maps out

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into 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 lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited asset reveals that put concept first.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to 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 bereaved man’s AI companion escalates into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting story that leverages the fear of a child’s fragile senses. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 erupts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan snared by residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: TBA. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 movies theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify bite-size scare clips from test screenings, curated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew 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 spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for broad premium screen use 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 left-field winner 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. Expect a healthy 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 pace and range. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundcraft, and visual design 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

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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, cut crisp trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.