Mythic Horror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across top streamers

An unnerving paranormal suspense story from dramatist / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric terror when outsiders become victims in a hellish trial. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving portrayal of endurance and forgotten curse that will remodel the fear genre this Halloween season. Crafted by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and cinematic thriller follows five figures who wake up ensnared in a secluded structure under the sinister command of Kyra, a mysterious girl occupied by a 2,000-year-old biblical force. Prepare to be drawn in by a narrative ride that melds bone-deep fear with biblical origins, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a long-standing concept in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the beings no longer descend outside the characters, but rather internally. This portrays the most terrifying layer of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the events becomes a intense fight between heaven and hell.


In a isolated natural abyss, five teens find themselves stuck under the possessive control and grasp of a uncanny being. As the team becomes incapable to resist her power, left alone and followed by spirits unimaginable, they are forced to wrestle with their inner horrors while the time harrowingly strikes toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust amplifies and partnerships crack, forcing each soul to evaluate their essence and the idea of personal agency itself. The danger grow with every short lapse, delivering a paranormal ride that marries spiritual fright with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to tap into raw dread, an power born of forgotten ages, influencing psychological breaks, and exposing a presence that tests the soul when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra involved tapping into something past sanity. She is unaware until the curse activates, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so close.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households from coast to coast can engage with this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has racked up over 100K plays.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Tune in for this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to experience these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For featurettes, extra content, and social posts from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursed across your favorite networks and visit the official digital haunt.





Modern horror’s pivotal crossroads: the year 2025 U.S. release slate integrates biblical-possession ideas, microbudget gut-punches, plus Franchise Rumbles

Spanning endurance-driven terror grounded in scriptural legend through to canon extensions together with incisive indie visions, 2025 is lining up as horror’s most layered plus calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. the big studios stabilize the year through proven series, in tandem SVOD players crowd the fall with discovery plays alongside old-world menace. On another front, the art-house flank is fueled by the uplift from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, but this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are calculated, thus 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal Pictures sets the tone with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Led by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. From director Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early reactions hint at fangs.

As summer eases, the Warner Bros. banner bows the concluding entry from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

After that, The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: retrograde shiver, trauma as text, and a cold supernatural calculus. This run ups the stakes, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. 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. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. 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 remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

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. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Signals and Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

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 genre lineup: returning titles, standalone ideas, plus A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare cycle lines up at the outset with a January crush, and then runs through the summer months, and pushing into the year-end corridor, combining brand equity, untold stories, and smart counterprogramming. Studios and platforms are relying on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that transform these offerings into all-audience topics.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has emerged as the dependable tool in distribution calendars, a segment that can expand when it connects and still limit the liability when it fails to connect. After 2023 showed studio brass that modestly budgeted scare machines can dominate the zeitgeist, the following year extended the rally with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing translated to 2025, where reawakened brands and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for several lanes, from franchise continuations to non-IP projects that travel well. The result for 2026 is a run that appears tightly organized across the industry, with planned clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a revived emphasis on theater exclusivity that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now serves as a flex slot on the slate. Horror can roll out on open real estate, generate a easy sell for creative and platform-native cuts, and punch above weight with viewers that arrive on Thursday nights and hold through the second weekend if the movie works. On the heels of a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 rhythm telegraphs confidence in that engine. The slate begins with a weighty January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that runs into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also reflects the tightening integration of specialty arms and streaming partners that can platform and widen, generate chatter, and scale up at the precise moment.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another return. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a title design that signals a new vibe or a lead change that connects a new entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the marquee originals are favoring tactile craft, on-set effects and distinct locales. That mix provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount establishes early momentum with two front-of-slate titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a baton pass and a classic-mode character-first story. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a heritage-honoring strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by iconic art, early character teases, and a promo sequence landing toward late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. useful reference Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will feature. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will pursue broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever drives the conversation that spring.

Universal has three distinct pushes. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is straightforward, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that grows into a fatal companion. The date lines it up at the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to renew creepy live activations imp source and micro spots that fuses romance and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele titles are branded as director events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date affords Universal to own 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček is at the helm of, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a raw, hands-on effects strategy can feel high-value on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is selling as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can fuel PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by immersive craft and textual fidelity, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus Features has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre slate flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that expands both week-one demand and platform bumps in the later window. Prime Video blends third-party pickups with global originals and limited cinema engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog discovery, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and featured rows to lengthen the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival buys, slotting horror entries near their drops and framing as events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that turns chatter to conversion. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to acquire select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 sequence 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 no-nonsense: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, refined for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the fall weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 skews toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is elevating character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a new voice. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night crowds.

Three-year comps help explain the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not foreclose a dual release from paying off when the brand was big. In 2024, art-forward horror hit big in premium formats. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, creates space for marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep assets in-market without long gaps.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind the year’s horror signal a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that elevates texture and dread rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership supporting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which are ideal for expo activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is packed. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth carries.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a opaque tease strategy and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as filmmaker prestige. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

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 moves. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: atmospheric 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 difficult boss push to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic upends and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s in-camera craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting piece that channels the fear through a kid’s uneven inner lens. Rating: TBD. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house 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 genre lampoon that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: TBA. Production: shoot planned for 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 detonates, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family linked to returning horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically have a peek at these guys strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 language and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three practical forces drive this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 placements. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, managed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Calendar math also matters. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four varied shades of horror will cluster across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will stay under the $40 to $50 million threshold, 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where low-to-mid 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, 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.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand equity where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.