Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across premium platforms

An bone-chilling unearthly suspense film from narrative craftsman / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an ancient entity when unfamiliar people become tokens in a dark experiment. Streaming October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of resistance and old world terror that will resculpt scare flicks this season. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic suspense flick follows five lost souls who awaken stranded in a unreachable cottage under the malevolent grip of Kyra, a haunted figure haunted by a 2,000-year-old ancient fiend. Anticipate to be ensnared by a big screen ride that intertwines bodily fright with legendary tales, streaming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a legendary narrative in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is inverted when the malevolences no longer appear from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This mirrors the shadowy version of the players. The result is a gripping inner struggle where the conflict becomes a ongoing confrontation between light and darkness.


In a remote forest, five individuals find themselves contained under the possessive effect and possession of a shadowy female figure. As the companions becomes unresisting to deny her control, isolated and stalked by beings beyond comprehension, they are made to wrestle with their inner demons while the doomsday meter unforgivingly counts down toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust rises and alliances dissolve, pushing each member to rethink their being and the philosophy of liberty itself. The pressure accelerate with every minute, delivering a paranormal ride that blends paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract core terror, an darkness from prehistory, channeling itself through fragile psyche, and testing a evil that dismantles free will when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra needed manifesting something deeper than fear. She is oblivious until the curse activates, and that conversion is haunting because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering viewers anywhere can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has collected over 100K plays.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has made public that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, offering the tale to international horror buffs.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling fall into madness. Stream *Young & Cursed* this launch day to witness these nightmarish insights about our species.


For exclusive trailers, extra content, and alerts via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the movie portal.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: the 2025 season stateside slate Mixes myth-forward possession, independent shockers, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from grit-forward survival fare inspired by legendary theology and including brand-name continuations in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most variegated paired with calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios hold down the year with familiar IP, while subscription platforms crowd the fall with new voices together with ancient terrors. On the festival side, independent banners is surfing the carry of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, however this time, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

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

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer fades, the Warner Bros. banner delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This time the stakes climb, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, broadens the animatronic terror cast, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It bows in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Modest spend, serious shock

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette 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 feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Written and helmed 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It is canny scheduling. No bloated canon. No franchise baggage. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

SXSW rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Franchise Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, with Francis Lawrence directing, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Signals and Trends

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Forecast: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

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 assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming fright Year Ahead: continuations, fresh concepts, alongside A brimming Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The upcoming scare slate crowds from day one with a January bottleneck, subsequently runs through midyear, and straight through the festive period, marrying franchise firepower, new concepts, and data-minded calendar placement. Studios and streamers are relying on cost discipline, big-screen-first runs, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these pictures into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

This category has proven to be the bankable lever in release strategies, a space that can break out when it hits and still safeguard the exposure when it underperforms. After the 2023 year re-taught studio brass that disciplined-budget fright engines can dominate audience talk, 2024 extended the rally with signature-voice projects and unexpected risers. The momentum moved into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects underscored there is a lane for varied styles, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a lineup that reads highly synchronized across the major shops, with strategic blocks, a equilibrium of established brands and first-time concepts, and a renewed eye on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium digital and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now works like a utility player on the slate. The genre can arrive on many corridors, deliver a clean hook for marketing and social clips, and lead with viewers that respond on opening previews and hold through the next pass if the movie pays off. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout indicates certainty in that playbook. The year commences with a thick January lineup, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while carving room for a fall run that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The grid also reflects the greater integration of specialty arms and platforms that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and scale up at the proper time.

A second macro trend is series management across linked properties and long-running brands. The players are not just greenlighting another next film. They are looking to package brand continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a star attachment that reconnects a new entry to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the most anticipated originals are championing in-camera technique, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That mix affords the 2026 slate a vital pairing of trust and novelty, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two spotlight plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the spine, marketing it as both a legacy handover and a return-to-roots relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the creative stance indicates a memory-charged strategy without retreading the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. A campaign is expected centered on heritage visuals, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format enabling quick shifts to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific projects. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is tight, soulful, and concept-forward: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that escalates into a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a front-loaded month, with marketing at Universal likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that threads devotion and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under temporary 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 permits a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are presented as must-see filmmaker statements, with a concept-forward tease and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The spooky-season slot gives Universal room to command 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, makeup-driven treatment can feel big on a mid-range budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio books two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, extending a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined 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 devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around narrative world, and monster aesthetics, elements that can increase premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes 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 defined by historical precision and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. The imprint has already locked the day for a holiday release, a signal of faith in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is glowing.

Streaming windows and tactics

Digital strategies for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ladder that enhances both first-week urgency and sign-up spikes in the after-window. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with global acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data warrants it. Max and Hulu work their edges in archive usage, using timely promos, horror hubs, and staff picks to stretch the tail on 2026 genre cume. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival additions, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing releases with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a two-step of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be key 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+ continues to weigh horror on a discrete basis. The platform has shown a willingness to pick up select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is engineering 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 proposition is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festival season if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has helped for director-led genre with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Watch 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 jointly, using limited runs to fuel evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Brands and originals

By share, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and legacy 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 rising filmmaker. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Recent-year comps illuminate the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed sequentially, allows marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the 2026 slate indicate a continued move toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes texture and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in trade spotlights and department features before rolling out a tone piece that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which lend themselves to booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel key. Look for trailers that highlight disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that land in big rooms.

Release calendar overview

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Post-January through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a minimalist tease strategy and limited information drops that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genetic code. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate evolves into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced 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 comes back to a Young & Cursed fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: aura-driven 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 severe boss struggle to survive on a uninhabited island as the power dynamic tilts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to dread, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting piece that threads the dread through a youth’s shifting POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. 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 participating creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that targets hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: undetermined. Production: principal photography set 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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: TBA. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that downshifted or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming launches. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can own a weekend outright or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will cluster across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, 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 search for sleepers 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, lean footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, sound, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers great post to read to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Promising 2026

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand power where it counts, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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, craft precise trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the shocks sell the seats.