Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient terror, a spine tingling feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

A frightening ghostly fright fest from screenwriter / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an archaic evil when outsiders become instruments in a dark struggle. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of resistance and primeval wickedness that will resculpt the horror genre this fall. Directed by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and cinematic tale follows five people who arise locked in a cut-off dwelling under the hostile command of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a 2,000-year-old Old Testament spirit. Anticipate to be ensnared by a screen-based journey that fuses soul-chilling terror with arcane tradition, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a iconic trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is flipped when the monsters no longer develop outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This suggests the grimmest shade of the cast. The result is a edge-of-seat mind game where the events becomes a relentless clash between righteousness and malevolence.


In a abandoned outland, five individuals find themselves caught under the dark sway and overtake of a unidentified being. As the cast becomes vulnerable to reject her command, isolated and targeted by creatures unimaginable, they are obligated to battle their core terrors while the timeline unceasingly strikes toward their fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and connections disintegrate, prompting each soul to contemplate their values and the foundation of autonomy itself. The cost accelerate with every tick, delivering a scare-fueled ride that combines paranormal dread with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to draw upon primal fear, an power born of forgotten ages, influencing inner turmoil, and confronting a curse that questions who we are when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something far beyond human desperation. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—allowing subscribers across the world can get immersed in this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its release of trailer #1, which has gathered over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling descent into hell. Join *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to acknowledge these spiritual awakenings about the mind.


For cast commentary, set experiences, and reveals from behind the lens, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 in focus U.S. release slate interlaces archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, paired with IP aftershocks

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with scriptural legend and extending to installment follow-ups paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted combined with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not merely full, it is methodical. leading studios hold down the year through proven series, in parallel premium streamers front-load the fall with emerging auteurs plus ancient terrors. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is carried on the echoes from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

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

Universal’s schedule fires the first shot with a headline swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, inside today’s landscape. Directed by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Guided by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

After that, The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson resumes command, and those signature textures resurface: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The continuation widens the legend, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It hits in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Digital Originals: No Budget, No Problem

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a body horror chamber piece anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, 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. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga led by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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.

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 swollen lore. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

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.

What to Watch

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 chiller year to come: next chapters, universe starters, And A packed Calendar Built For jolts

Dek The arriving terror season packs early with a January wave, thereafter unfolds through the mid-year, and carrying into the holiday stretch, marrying brand heft, creative pitches, and data-minded release strategy. Studios and streamers are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-driven marketing that turn these offerings into all-audience topics.

Horror momentum into 2026

This space has established itself as the steady move in programming grids, a space that can expand when it breaks through and still cushion the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 showed studio brass that cost-conscious fright engines can command the national conversation, 2024 maintained heat with signature-voice projects and under-the-radar smashes. The energy extended into the 2025 frame, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is space for different modes, from sequel tracks to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The aggregate for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across distributors, with strategic blocks, a blend of established brands and fresh ideas, and a refocused stance on big-screen windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and platforms.

Insiders argue the genre now operates like a flex slot on the slate. Horror can premiere on virtually any date, create a quick sell for teasers and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with patrons that line up on opening previews and sustain through the next pass if the release works. Following a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 plan exhibits certainty in that model. The calendar launches with a stacked January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while clearing room for a autumn stretch that extends to late October and past Halloween. The schedule also features the stronger partnership of indie arms and OTT outlets that can develop over weeks, ignite recommendations, and widen at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is IP cultivation across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Major shops are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are looking to package lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title presentation that announces a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that threads a next film to a early run. At the concurrently, the helmers behind the headline-grabbing originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical effects and concrete locations. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a lively combination of assurance and surprise, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, angling it as both a legacy handover and a back-to-basics character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Watch for a push stacked with classic imagery, character spotlights, and a tease cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a angle the campaign will spotlight. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will pursue large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick redirects to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three defined lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an algorithmic mate that shifts into a dangerous lover. The date puts it at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-cut promos that hybridizes companionship and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are presented as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to command 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a gnarly, makeup-driven execution can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Look for a splatter summer horror blast that emphasizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, continuing a evergreen supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is selling as a ground-zero restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both franchise faithful and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and practical creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror driven by minute detail and historical speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is glowing.

Digital platform strategies

Platform strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a sequence that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and sub growth in the post-theatrical. Prime Video combines licensed titles with world buys and brief theater runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in catalog engagement, using in-app campaigns, October hubs, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about internal projects and festival deals, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events go-lives with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of tailored theatrical exposure and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with award winners or star packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is simple: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an upbeat indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, piloting the title through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then leveraging the year-end corridor to broaden. That positioning has been successful for director-led genre with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception justifies. Keep an eye on 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 jointly, using mini theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, the 2026 slate favors the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate brand equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is underscoring character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-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, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the configuration is comforting enough to accelerate early sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps clarify the strategy. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that preserved streaming windows did not deter a day-date move from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror outperformed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they angle differently and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through character and theme and to leave creative active without doldrums.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers atmosphere and fear rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and spurs shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature craft and set design, which match well with convention floor stunts and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a quiet contrast amid heavier IP. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the variety of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

End of summer through fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event secures October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a peekaboo tease plan and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to 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 mourning man’s algorithmic partner becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the chain of command reverses and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

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 from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s tactile craft and quiet 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 in-home haunting tale that leverages the unease of a child’s tricky senses. Rating: pending. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 erupts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further opens again, with a unlucky family lashed to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-core horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBD. Production: ongoing. 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 antique diction and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-slotted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict 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 landings. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work bite-size scare clips from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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 robust premium-format allocation without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into navigate to this website September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, smart allocations, 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 grain, sound field, and imagery 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 Strong 2026 Horizon

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, original 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.