Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

An hair-raising supernatural suspense story from author / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an prehistoric nightmare when unfamiliar people become pawns in a supernatural maze. Airings begin on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of resilience and archaic horror that will alter the fear genre this season. Crafted by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and emotionally thick feature follows five teens who come to sealed in a wilderness-bound lodge under the dark control of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Steel yourself to be hooked by a theatrical experience that blends deep-seated panic with folklore, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a historical fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the spirits no longer form from a different plane, but rather from their core. This symbolizes the malevolent corner of the victims. The result is a enthralling mental war where the intensity becomes a ongoing contest between light and darkness.


In a abandoned forest, five individuals find themselves sealed under the malevolent influence and spiritual invasion of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes powerless to combat her will, isolated and hunted by entities unimaginable, they are thrust to reckon with their raw vulnerabilities while the hours without pause edges forward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust surges and connections shatter, coercing each person to challenge their identity and the principle of self-determination itself. The threat climb with every second, delivering a terror ride that integrates paranormal dread with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to awaken ancestral fear, an force beyond time, feeding on inner turmoil, and navigating a spirit that erodes the self when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something past sanity. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers in all regions can get immersed in this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new trailer update for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its intro video, which has seen over massive response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, exporting the fear to global fright lovers.


Mark your calendar for this visceral descent into hell. Experience *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to witness these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from the cast and crew, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit our film’s homepage.





The horror genre’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts Mixes archetypal-possession themes, festival-born jolts, alongside returning-series thunder

From life-or-death fear rooted in biblical myth to returning series alongside focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most stratified paired with calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. major banners plant stakes across the year through proven series, as subscription platforms flood the fall with new perspectives alongside archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, festival-forward creators is riding the tailwinds of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, and in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, thus 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in an immediate now. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Eli Craig directs anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its anchor horror saga: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the finale seeks an emotional close via a signature case. Despite a known recipe, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: 70s style chill, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

With cinemas leaning into known IP, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror chamber piece including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Next comes Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of 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. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest posts a muscular horror lineup this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Franchise Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror resurges
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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 will have to fight for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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



The oncoming Horror Year Ahead: continuations, new stories, paired with A jammed Calendar optimized for screams

Dek The incoming terror calendar crowds immediately with a January pile-up, then unfolds through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, braiding marquee clout, fresh ideas, and shrewd counterplay. Studio marketers and platforms are doubling down on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that transform these offerings into water-cooler talk.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the surest swing in distribution calendars, a pillar that can break out when it catches and still cushion the downside when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to studio brass that cost-conscious genre plays can shape pop culture, 2024 sustained momentum with visionary-driven titles and word-of-mouth wins. The head of steam rolled into 2025, where revivals and festival-grade titles underscored there is room for many shades, from returning installments to director-led originals that export nicely. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a calendar that feels more orchestrated than usual across companies, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of established brands and new packages, and a revived commitment on cinema windows that feed downstream value on premium rental and home streaming.

Schedulers say the genre now behaves like a wildcard on the slate. Horror can premiere on most weekends, supply a clear pitch for previews and short-form placements, and over-index with ticket buyers that appear on previews Thursday and sustain through the subsequent weekend if the movie fires. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout telegraphs conviction in that logic. The year gets underway with a front-loaded January schedule, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a autumn stretch that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The program also shows the tightening integration of boutique distributors and OTT outlets that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and broaden at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title design that signals a tonal shift or a casting move that ties a latest entry to a classic era. At the same time, the visionaries behind the most buzzed-about originals are embracing hands-on technique, real effects and concrete locations. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of known notes and newness, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece moves that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach points to a fan-service aware campaign without looping the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected stacked with recognizable motifs, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical 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 paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will stress. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build wide appeal through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever owns genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three specific entries. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, somber, and big-hook: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that escalates into a perilous partner. The date nudges it to the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew odd public stunts and bite-size content that interlaces affection and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a proper title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele projects are framed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a teaser that reveals little and a next wave of trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to lead 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, hands-on effects execution can feel big on a moderate cost. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that maximizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, carrying Source a bankable supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is selling 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 focus to serve both core fans and first-timers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around narrative world, and creature design, elements that can lift deluxe auditorium demand and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by obsessive craft and period speech, this time focused on werewolf legend. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is strong.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases flow to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that boosts both initial urgency and subscription bumps in the tail. Prime Video blends library titles with cross-border buys and small theatrical windows when movies the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, holiday hubs, and curated rows to extend momentum on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps flexible about original films and festival deals, confirming horror entries with shorter lead times and turning into events drops with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a paired of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to secure select projects with prestige directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation surges.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, recalibrated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a traditional theatrical plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then using the December frame to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 tilts in favor of the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The go-to fix is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is leading with character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Non-franchise titles and visionary-led titles add oxygen. 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, places Rachel McAdams into a island-set survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the packaging is comforting enough to generate pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps frame the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that kept streaming intact did not stop a hybrid test from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, precision craft horror hit big in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they pivot perspective and elevate scope. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to connect the chapters through protagonists and motifs and to hold creative in the market without hiatuses.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind the 2026 slate forecast a continued bias toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that underscores aura and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead features and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which fit with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel must-have. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is busy. Universal’s 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month concludes 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 formidable, but the tonal variety makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

February through May load in summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that center concept over reveals.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s digital partner becomes something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads 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: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 prickly boss work to survive on a cut-off island as the power dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles to be revealed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to fright, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting premise that toys with the horror of a child’s inconsistent perspective. Rating: TBD. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that riffs on contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a another family snared by old terrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over set-piece spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. 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 menace. Rating: pending. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 in flux, fall expected.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or recalendared in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and condensed 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 surpassed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate meme-ready beats from test screenings, metered scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can capture a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The 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 work those windows. 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. 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your Check This Out own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, sound field, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the secrets, and let the gasps sell the seats.