Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives age-old dread, a nightmare fueled horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on top streamers

One blood-curdling paranormal fright fest from scriptwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an forgotten entity when outsiders become conduits in a diabolical trial. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing episode of resistance and old world terror that will reconstruct scare flicks this ghoul season. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and cinematic thriller follows five unknowns who awaken trapped in a cut-off shack under the unfriendly command of Kyra, a young woman consumed by a prehistoric holy text monster. Anticipate to be seized by a filmic ride that unites soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, releasing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay fixture in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the dark entities no longer arise from a different plane, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the grimmest shade of the cast. The result is a harrowing psychological battle where the drama becomes a unforgiving struggle between right and wrong.


In a remote backcountry, five campers find themselves stuck under the ominous dominion and spiritual invasion of a mysterious woman. As the companions becomes defenseless to deny her grasp, abandoned and tormented by powers beyond comprehension, they are pushed to endure their soulful dreads while the timeline ruthlessly ticks toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and ties implode, pressuring each protagonist to evaluate their character and the foundation of volition itself. The cost rise with every short lapse, delivering a terror ride that combines ghostly evil with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to awaken raw dread, an force from prehistory, manipulating emotional vulnerability, and challenging a entity that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra needed manifesting something rooted in terror. She is insensitive until the spirit seizes her, and that pivot is deeply unsettling because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering households no matter where they are can witness this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its first preview, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to fans of fear everywhere.


Join this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these spiritual awakenings about existence.


For sneak peeks, on-set glimpses, and press updates from those who lived it, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate fuses ancient-possession motifs, indie terrors, alongside series shake-ups

Across grit-forward survival fare grounded in near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the richest and deliberate year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors set cornerstones with franchise anchors, concurrently OTT services front-load the fall with debut heat plus mythic dread. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is carried on the tailwinds from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, distinctly in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are methodical, accordingly 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

the Universal banner begins the calendar with a statement play: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Booked into mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, pinning the winter close.

Digital Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

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

A flagship risky title is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, an intimate body horror unraveling led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

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

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No franchise baggage. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. 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, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. If packaged well, it could track like The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Myth turns mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The oncoming scare season: follow-ups, new stories, And A stacked Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The emerging horror season stacks right away with a January bottleneck, subsequently carries through the summer months, and running into the holidays, balancing brand heft, creative pitches, and strategic counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are relying on cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that shape genre releases into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

Horror has turned into the steady swing in release plans, a genre that can grow when it performs and still limit the drag when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught buyers that disciplined-budget shockers can own cultural conversation, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and unexpected risers. The upswing rolled into 2025, where legacy revivals and prestige plays demonstrated there is appetite for several lanes, from sequel tracks to original one-offs that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that looks unusually coordinated across players, with planned clusters, a pairing of established brands and new concepts, and a renewed focus on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now behaves like a plug-and-play option on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on many corridors, deliver a tight logline for marketing and UGC-friendly snippets, and outstrip with viewers that line up on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the movie satisfies. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout demonstrates certainty in that model. The year launches with a crowded January lineup, then targets spring into early summer for counterweight, while leaving room for a fall cadence that runs into spooky season and into November. The gridline also reflects the continuing integration of specialty distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and expand at the sweet spot.

An added macro current is legacy care across connected story worlds and veteran brands. Studios are not just turning out another follow-up. They are looking to package ongoing narrative with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that flags a reframed mood or a talent selection that binds a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are returning to hands-on technique, in-camera effects and vivid settings. That blend provides the 2026 slate a healthy mix of assurance and invention, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, positioning the film as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a memory-charged approach without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Anticipate a campaign driven by recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a tease cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will hunt wide appeal through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever rules the conversation that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man installs an machine companion that becomes a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to bring back strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an earned moment closer to the initial tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. His projects are sold as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, practical-first execution can feel cinematic on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror rush that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, keeping a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both longtime followers and curious audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build materials around world-building, and creature design, elements that can fuel format premiums and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by meticulous craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The label has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform strategies for 2026 Young & Cursed run on well-known grooves. Universal’s genre entries head to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a tiered path that maximizes both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using featured rows, spooky hubs, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, finalizing horror entries near their drops and making event-like arrivals with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a two-step of focused cinema runs and short jumps to platform that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with name filmmakers or star-driven packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation ramps.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 corridor with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, retooled for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the back half.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, curating the rollout through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday corridor to increase reach. That positioning has helped for craft-driven horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception allows. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using targeted theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their membership.

Legacy titles versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate skews toward the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The practical approach is to present each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is steady enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and early previews.

Past-three-year patterns help explain the approach. In 2023, a cinema-first model that kept clean windows did not deter a hybrid test from performing when the brand was big. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror popped in premium formats. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, permits marketing to link the films through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without navigate here doldrums.

Production craft signals

The director conversations behind 2026 horror telegraph a continued turn toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that emphasizes mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and era-correct language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta reframe that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die have a peek here on monster work and world-building, which align with fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that foreground hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

From winter to holidays

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 foggy reset amid headline IP. The month closes 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 stiff, but the tonal variety creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth holds.

Late winter and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. 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 supports big openers. The 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a early fall window that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited teasers that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker prestige. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss push to survive on a desolate island as the control dynamic swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting tale that leverages the unease of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-grade and celebrity-led supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that riffs on present-day genre chatter and true crime fervors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new household linked to past horrors. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. 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 period-specific language and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage meme-ready beats from test screenings, precision scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will cluster across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 underdog chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined 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 detail, sound field, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand power where it counts, inventive vision where it helps, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.