Age-old Terror rises: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A spine-tingling spiritual horror tale from scriptwriter / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an ancient malevolence when guests become instruments in a fiendish conflict. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful chronicle of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will remodel horror this cool-weather season. Brought to life by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and atmospheric cinema piece follows five strangers who come to locked in a unreachable hideaway under the unfriendly control of Kyra, a cursed figure claimed by a legendary biblical force. Arm yourself to be absorbed by a motion picture outing that weaves together deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, landing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a mainstay foundation in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the entities no longer arise from an outside force, but rather within themselves. This marks the malevolent dimension of the victims. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the plotline becomes a perpetual fight between light and darkness.


In a haunting wild, five friends find themselves stuck under the ghastly sway and infestation of a enigmatic person. As the cast becomes unresisting to evade her grasp, cut off and tracked by terrors mind-shattering, they are driven to endure their emotional phantoms while the time brutally edges forward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and teams erode, compelling each participant to contemplate their values and the idea of personal agency itself. The pressure amplify with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that blends occult fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to explore instinctual horror, an power rooted in antiquity, feeding on fragile psyche, and exposing a evil that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra was about accessing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the takeover begins, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so deep.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for public screening beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure streamers from coast to coast can enjoy this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has been viewed over 100,000 views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable exploration of dread. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to confront these terrifying truths about the psyche.


For film updates, behind-the-scenes content, and announcements from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus stateside slate interlaces primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside returning-series thunder

Across grit-forward survival fare suffused with primordial scripture and stretching into IP renewals plus pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the genre’s most multifaceted along with intentionally scheduled year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. the big studios lay down anchors through proven series, simultaneously OTT services crowd the fall with new voices together with ancient terrors. On the independent axis, the art-house flank is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, therefore 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s pipeline starts the year with a headline swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. arriving mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Directed by Eli Craig 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. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It books December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led 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. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No heavy handed lore. No IP hangover. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. 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 introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Season Ahead: Fall stack and winter swing card

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

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

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The approaching spook lineup: entries, universe starters, alongside A stacked Calendar aimed at chills

Dek: The brand-new scare season clusters at the outset with a January glut, following that runs through the warm months, and deep into the holiday stretch, combining IP strength, fresh ideas, and calculated release strategy. Distributors with platforms are committing to efficient budgets, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that position these pictures into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a segment that can grow when it clicks and still buffer the downside when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget pictures can lead mainstream conversation, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for different modes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that carry overseas. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that presents tight coordination across studios, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on cinema windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now performs as a wildcard on the rollout map. The genre can premiere on open real estate, generate a tight logline for spots and social clips, and punch above weight with audiences that appear on early shows and hold through the subsequent weekend if the film satisfies. On the heels of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration demonstrates assurance in that equation. The slate opens with a busy January block, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while keeping space for a fall run that connects to the Halloween corridor and beyond. The grid also highlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across shared IP webs and storied titles. Major shops are not just turning out another sequel. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a fresh chapter to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are favoring hands-on technique, makeup and prosthetics and location-forward worlds. That interplay offers the 2026 slate a solid mix of assurance and unexpected turns, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent titles that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance signals a legacy-leaning strategy without repeating the last two entries’ sibling arc. Look for a marketing run centered on classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three defined bets. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, heartbroken, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man sets up an synthetic partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back eerie street stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The prime October weekend affords Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a tactile, hands-on effects method can feel elevated on a mid-range budget. Expect a blood-and-grime summer horror hit that leans into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is billing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a mission to serve both core fans and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around environmental design, and creature builds, elements that can stoke premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in careful craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is positive.

Digital platform strategies

Windowing plans in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that maximizes both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video balances outside acquisitions with global originals and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using prominent placements, Halloween hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival wins, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and framing as events rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a tiered of limited theatrical footprints and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to purchase select projects with recognized filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, refined for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the fall weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has been successful for elevated genre with crossover ambitions. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception prompts. Look for 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 mini theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

IP versus fresh ideas

By volume, 2026 leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand wear. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is emphasizing character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is promising a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a Francophone tone from a buzzed-about director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and auteur plays add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is comforting enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set frame the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from succeeding when the brand was robust. In 2024, art-forward horror punched above its weight in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they angle differently and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 shot in tandem, enables marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep materials circulating without lulls.

Craft and creative trends

The director conversations behind these films telegraph a continued preference for real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers texture and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a meta pivot that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel key. Look for trailers that spotlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a transitional slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a opaque tease strategy and limited teasers that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s machine mate shifts into something deadly romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 unyielding boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to horror, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting setup that mediates the fear via a kid’s wavering subjective view. Rating: to be announced. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: major-studio and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true-crime manias. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further reopens, with a different family entangled with long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A new start designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. his comment is here Rating: to be announced. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental fear. Rating: undetermined. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

The slot calculus is real. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 midrange-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, 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 beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and camera work 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 Shapes Up Strong

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is recognizable IP where it plays, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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, edit tight trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.