Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

An blood-curdling spiritual nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an long-buried evil when outsiders become tools in a demonic experiment. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking episode of survival and primeval wickedness that will reconstruct the fear genre this season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic story follows five young adults who regain consciousness stranded in a secluded house under the oppressive rule of Kyra, a female presence possessed by a prehistoric holy text monster. Be warned to be hooked by a audio-visual adventure that weaves together bone-deep fear with biblical origins, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is turned on its head when the fiends no longer originate beyond the self, but rather within themselves. This mirrors the most terrifying shade of the cast. The result is a enthralling emotional conflict where the conflict becomes a brutal struggle between purity and corruption.


In a remote natural abyss, five campers find themselves marooned under the fiendish rule and inhabitation of a unidentified person. As the victims becomes unresisting to withstand her control, cut off and targeted by unknowns beyond reason, they are pushed to reckon with their soulful dreads while the countdown coldly ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and connections implode, urging each soul to challenge their being and the foundation of freedom of choice itself. The consequences rise with every breath, delivering a terror ride that connects unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to tap into elemental fright, an power that existed before mankind, operating within fragile psyche, and questioning a will that strips down our being when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra asked for exploring something more primal than sorrow. She is insensitive until the haunting manifests, and that transformation is harrowing because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that watchers globally can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its original clip, which has collected over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, taking the terror to global fright lovers.


Avoid skipping this mind-warping descent into hell. Confront *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to uncover these unholy truths about existence.


For featurettes, on-set glimpses, and press updates from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the official website.





Modern horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate weaves old-world possession, signature indie scares, plus franchise surges

Moving from grit-forward survival fare rooted in near-Eastern lore and stretching into brand-name continuations alongside pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most variegated along with tactically planned year in recent memory.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. major banners stabilize the year with established lines, while streaming platforms front-load the fall with new voices in concert with mythic dread. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the other windows are mapped with care. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are disciplined, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal kicks off the frame with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for 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.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Helmed by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a sealed box body horror arc anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. 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 canny scheduling. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent 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. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

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

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it plays as a savage dystopian parable housed in survival horror, a walk to death contest without winners. If packaged well, it could track like 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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The filler era wanes for platform horror. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The new fright calendar year ahead: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar Built For shocks

Dek The upcoming scare season packs up front with a January glut, then runs through June and July, and deep into the holiday stretch, fusing brand heft, novel approaches, and data-minded counterweight. Studios and platforms are betting on responsible budgets, theater-first strategies, and platform-native promos that transform these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

How the genre looks for 2026

The horror sector has established itself as the surest play in distribution calendars, a category that can grow when it catches and still hedge the drawdown when it under-delivers. After 2023 reassured leaders that responsibly budgeted entries can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The upswing carried into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays underscored there is a lane for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to original features that scale internationally. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that appears tightly organized across players, with defined corridors, a mix of legacy names and novel angles, and a re-energized strategy on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and streaming.

Executives say the category now works like a fill-in ace on the distribution slate. Horror can arrive on a wide range of weekends, offer a clean hook for creative and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with fans that lean in on opening previews and hold through the next pass if the film hits. Emerging from a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 layout indicates comfort in that playbook. The year rolls out with a stacked January schedule, then primes spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that stretches into Halloween and past the holiday. The grid also underscores the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and home platforms that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the optimal moment.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across shared IP webs and long-running brands. Major shops are not just turning out another sequel. They are trying to present lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that flags a new vibe or a ensemble decision that reconnects a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the creative teams behind the most watched originals are championing practical craft, practical gags and specific settings. That pairing delivers 2026 a vital pairing of trust and surprise, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount opens strong with two big-ticket entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, framing it as both a passing of the torch and a rootsy character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture hints at a classic-referencing strategy without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign built on franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives 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 contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue four-quadrant chatter through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick redirects to whatever shapes the social talk that spring.

Universal has three unique projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is crisp, sorrow-tinged, and premise-first: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that escalates into a fatal companion. The date places it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to replay odd public stunts and quick hits that hybridizes devotion and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the debut look. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are sold as signature events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that define feel without revealing the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning approach can feel big on a disciplined budget. Expect a hard-R summer horror charge that pushes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is presenting as a reset 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 directive to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around setting detail, and monster craft, elements that can increase premium booking interest and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is warm.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate window into copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the after-window. Prime Video blends acquired titles with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and collection rows to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival wins, confirming 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 paired of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with recognized filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, recalibrated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday slot to move out. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with wider appeal. 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 solid projection is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using targeted theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By weight, 2026 bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on franchise value. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward character and lineage in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a Francophone tone from a fresh helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday previews.

Comparable trends from recent years frame the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not block a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 this content 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 paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed in sequence, permits marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind these films forecast a continued move toward tactile, place-driven craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and medieval diction, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 hints at a self-referential reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which work nicely for convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month buttons 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 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 sustains.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds 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 jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. 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 scores with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and holiday gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss push to survive on a isolated island as the power dynamic inverts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film 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 fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, rooted in Cronin’s in-camera craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that teases the unease of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven occult suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A satire sequel that needles contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites flares, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: canon-conscious reboot with mainstream reach.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and raw menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three operational forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 debuts. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 press those advantages. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase 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 viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient placements, 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 brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, protect the mystery, and let the shocks sell the seats.