Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes mythic darkness, a fear soaked thriller, premiering Oct 2025 across top streaming platforms

One bone-chilling spiritual suspense film from cinematographer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval terror when outsiders become victims in a cursed experiment. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a frightful depiction of continuance and old world terror that will revolutionize the horror genre this October. Brought to life by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and gothic feature follows five lost souls who regain consciousness caught in a cut-off shack under the unfriendly will of Kyra, a mysterious girl claimed by a antiquated sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be gripped by a narrative journey that unites primitive horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a classic fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is twisted when the dark entities no longer come from elsewhere, but rather deep within. This embodies the shadowy part of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the emotions becomes a intense confrontation between heaven and hell.


In a bleak natural abyss, five souls find themselves sealed under the malevolent sway and inhabitation of a elusive female presence. As the team becomes helpless to escape her will, cut off and hunted by beings impossible to understand, they are confronted to wrestle with their soulful dreads while the hours coldly winds toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and relationships implode, pressuring each protagonist to rethink their identity and the integrity of free will itself. The risk accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that integrates occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into deep fear, an threat that predates humanity, feeding on mental cracks, and highlighting a entity that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra involved tapping into something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that conversion is eerie because it is so unshielded.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for on-demand beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—making sure horror lovers anywhere can watch this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its release of trailer #1, which has seen over a huge fan reaction.


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


Make sure to see this haunted exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these chilling revelations about mankind.


For director insights, behind-the-scenes content, and reveals from the story's source, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit the movie’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. release slate Mixes biblical-possession ideas, art-house nightmares, alongside franchise surges

From survival horror saturated with near-Eastern lore and extending to returning series plus incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with carefully orchestrated year in years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios plant stakes across the year with franchise anchors, concurrently premium streamers prime the fall with debut heat plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is surfing the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: High-craft horror returns

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in an immediate now. Steered by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The turn is more than creature work, it is about marriage, parenthood, and humanity. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

As summer winds down, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Although the framework is familiar, 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 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma in the foreground, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Located in a secluded rental as a trip collapses, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a calculated bet. No bloated canon. No canon weight. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. 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
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Projection: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The upcoming terror season: follow-ups, fresh concepts, and also A stacked Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek The current scare cycle loads up front with a January cluster, and then stretches through the mid-year, and pushing into the winter holidays, marrying franchise firepower, new voices, and well-timed counter-scheduling. The big buyers and platforms are doubling down on responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that shape horror entries into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror has proven to be the steady play in programming grids, a genre that can break out when it catches and still safeguard the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can own the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The energy moved into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films highlighted there is demand for a variety of tones, from returning installments to original one-offs that scale internationally. The takeaway for 2026 is a programming that seems notably aligned across studios, with defined corridors, a combination of brand names and new concepts, and a re-energized strategy on exclusive windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and OTT platforms.

Schedulers say the category now functions as a flex slot on the rollout map. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, generate a clean hook for spots and platform-native cuts, and overperform with crowds that come out on previews Thursday and stay strong through the second weekend if the movie works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration exhibits assurance in that setup. The calendar opens with a thick January block, then uses spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a autumn push that stretches into the Halloween corridor and afterwards. The calendar also shows the stronger partnership of specialized imprints and subscription services that can build gradually, spark evangelism, and grow at the precise moment.

Another broad trend is franchise tending across ongoing universes and storied titles. Distribution groups are not just making another installment. They are aiming to frame threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a graphic identity that conveys a re-angled tone or a casting pivot that bridges a upcoming film to a initial period. At the same time, the directors behind the eagerly awaited originals are prioritizing material texture, practical gags and vivid settings. That convergence affords 2026 a strong blend of familiarity and surprise, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two headline titles that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the heart, framing it as both a succession moment and a origin-leaning character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a nostalgia-forward bent without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push fueled by classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will foreground. As a summer counter-slot, this one will go after mainstream recognition through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format supporting quick turns to whatever defines the social talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct strategies. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is clean, somber, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man installs an virtual partner that turns into a killer companion. The date locates it at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on odd public stunts and snackable content that fuses affection and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a official title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a subsequent trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor lets the studio 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a gritty, makeup-driven method can feel cinematic on a tight budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror blast that emphasizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is positioning as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build marketing units around canon, and monster design, elements that can stoke IMAX and PLF uptake 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 builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on careful craft and language, this time driven by werewolf stories. The label 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 warm.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run head to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a cadence that enhances both launch urgency and subscriber lifts in the after-window. Prime Video interleaves acquired titles with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival deals, dating horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for platform stickiness when the genre conversation intensifies.

Specialized lanes

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 setup is simple: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has indicated a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to move out. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception warrants. Be ready 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 as a pair, using limited theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s Check This Out signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not block a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was strong. In 2024, art-forward horror outperformed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they alter lens and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued shift toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that spotlights creep and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and drives shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature and environment design, which are ideal for fan conventions and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid marquee brands. 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 formidable, but the spread of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months prime the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can thrive 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 rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a late-September window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s synthetic partner turns into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led 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 struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s tactile craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 residential haunting chiller that frames the panic through a youth’s uncertain subjective lens. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A genre lampoon that skewers present-day genre chatter and true crime preoccupations. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. 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 breaks out, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household entangled with older hauntings. Rating: undetermined. 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: forthcoming. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from navigate here the ground up, with an priority on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: not yet rated. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. 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 period-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces structure this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. 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-hit hunt 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 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.

How the year flows for audiences

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

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound, and framing 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.