Age-old Terror Awakens in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding supernatural thriller, launching Oct 2025 on premium platforms

This spine-tingling mystic scare-fest from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an forgotten dread when unknowns become pawns in a devilish maze. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of survival and archaic horror that will reimagine terror storytelling this fall. Realized by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and emotionally thick film follows five characters who are stirred caught in a off-grid shack under the dark power of Kyra, a haunted figure claimed by a biblical-era biblical force. Arm yourself to be captivated by a visual adventure that combines deep-seated panic with ancient myths, debuting on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a time-honored fixture in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is radically shifted when the monsters no longer descend from elsewhere, but rather within themselves. This embodies the most hidden aspect of all involved. The result is a bone-chilling internal warfare where the plotline becomes a ongoing conflict between innocence and sin.


In a forsaken forest, five figures find themselves trapped under the fiendish control and haunting of a mysterious figure. As the youths becomes helpless to withstand her will, disconnected and attacked by terrors ungraspable, they are confronted to acknowledge their inner demons while the time without pity counts down toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear swells and bonds crack, urging each survivor to reflect on their identity and the philosophy of decision-making itself. The tension intensify with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes unearthly horror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to uncover raw dread, an power older than civilization itself, channeling itself through emotional vulnerability, and dealing with a presence that peels away humanity when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra required summoning something far beyond human desperation. She is oblivious until the control shifts, and that evolution is bone-chilling because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that users around the globe can enjoy this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its intro video, which has gathered over strong viewer count.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, taking the terror to a worldwide audience.


Experience this mind-warping exploration of dread. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to face these chilling revelations about the soul.


For previews, extra content, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across media channels and visit youngandcursed.com.





Today’s horror watershed moment: the 2025 cycle U.S. calendar interlaces ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Ranging from survival horror steeped in biblical myth to installment follow-ups set beside focused festival visions, 2025 is lining up as the most variegated combined with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios set cornerstones with familiar IP, in parallel digital services pack the fall with emerging auteurs paired with mythic dread. On another front, the artisan tier is catching the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, and now, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are calculated, hence 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a statement play: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, instead in a current-day frame. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated 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.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. 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 Bros. Pictures rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This time the stakes climb, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, grows the animatronic horror lineup, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. From writer director 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 night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is an astute call. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre yard leans urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine 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
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror season: follow-ups, new stories, together with A packed Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The upcoming scare calendar lines up immediately with a January cluster, subsequently flows through summer, and well into the December corridor, combining series momentum, fresh ideas, and smart release strategy. Major distributors and platforms are doubling down on cost discipline, exclusive theatrical windows first, and platform-native promos that elevate these pictures into water-cooler talk.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the most reliable move in distribution calendars, a genre that can surge when it hits and still mitigate the liability when it misses. After the 2023 year showed studio brass that efficiently budgeted shockers can steer pop culture, the following year held pace with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind extended into 2025, where reboots and critical darlings proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from continued chapters to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with obvious clusters, a blend of legacy names and first-time concepts, and a renewed eye on release windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium digital rental and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now functions as a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can kick off on most weekends, offer a clean hook for teasers and vertical videos, and over-index with patrons that respond on advance nights and hold through the follow-up frame if the title connects. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm demonstrates belief in that setup. The calendar opens with a front-loaded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a fall corridor that runs into late October and into the next week. The map also underscores the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and digital platforms that can build gradually, fuel WOM, and scale up at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and legacy franchises. Distribution groups are not just rolling another chapter. They are working to present continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that threads a new installment to a classic era. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the top original plays are returning to hands-on technique, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That convergence hands 2026 a solid mix of trust and unexpected turns, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the center, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a DNA-forward character study. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the authorial approach conveys a heritage-honoring campaign without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push leaning on heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a rollout cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

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 re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since check over here the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a counterweight in summer, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick reframes to whatever owns the discourse that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is efficient, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an algorithmic mate that shifts into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s marketing likely to replay odd public stunts and bite-size content that melds longing and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels 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 official title to become an attention spike closer to the initial tease. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are marketed as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel high-value on a moderate cost. Look for a grime-caked summer horror jolt that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, carrying a dependable supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 clearer mandate to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can lift premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Digital platform strategies

Platform tactics for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s releases move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the later phase. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with global pickups and targeted theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library pulls, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries near launch and elevating as drops debuts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and short jumps to platform that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation heats up.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same somber, 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. The distributor has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the late stretch.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday slot to widen. That positioning has been successful for auteur horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Plan on 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 in concert, using limited runs to jump-start evangelism that fuels their audience.

Franchises versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The practical approach is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is centering character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the packaging is anchored enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps clarify the playbook. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that maintained windows did not foreclose a simultaneous release test from hitting when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and increase ambition. 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 shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that highlights creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in feature stories and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview that keeps plot minimal, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gross-out texture, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta-horror reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel primary. Look for trailers that center pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

From winter to holidays

January is busy. 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heftier brand moves. 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 serious, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 opens February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play 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 premium screens.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that favor idea over plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and holiday card usage.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production continues. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

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 confront a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power flips and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s material craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 domestic haunting premise that plays with the fright of a child’s fragile perspective. Rating: TBA. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined spirit-world 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 comic send-up that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 bursts, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further opens again, with a fresh family entangled with returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: continuing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 dread. Rating: not yet rated. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a cinema-first path before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces organize this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

Budgets remain in the sweet spot. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 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 harvest those lanes. January could easily deliver the first shock 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run 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 wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound field, and cinematography 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, inventive vision where it helps, 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 late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.