Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primordial evil, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across top digital platforms

A terrifying unearthly suspense story from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic force when foreigners become pawns in a satanic maze. Debuting on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of resilience and prehistoric entity that will reshape scare flicks this harvest season. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and atmospheric feature follows five teens who wake up locked in a unreachable shack under the hostile grip of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a prehistoric religious nightmare. Ready yourself to be hooked by a theatrical presentation that intertwines primitive horror with mythic lore, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the presences no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather from within. This embodies the grimmest dimension of the players. The result is a riveting emotional conflict where the suspense becomes a soul-crushing push-pull between right and wrong.


In a barren wilderness, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the unholy grip and domination of a haunted apparition. As the companions becomes helpless to withstand her control, isolated and targeted by presences mind-shattering, they are thrust to wrestle with their core terrors while the deathwatch relentlessly counts down toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion deepens and alliances erode, urging each protagonist to examine their personhood and the nature of personal agency itself. The stakes surge with every fleeting time, delivering a scare-fueled ride that marries unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to evoke primal fear, an darkness beyond time, influencing fragile psyche, and exposing a curse that forces self-examination when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra demanded embodying something outside normal anguish. She is insensitive until the entity awakens, and that change is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers worldwide can watch this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its first trailer, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Experience this soul-jarring descent into hell. Stream *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these nightmarish insights about the human condition.


For teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit our film’s homepage.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the 2025 season stateside slate melds ancient-possession motifs, art-house nightmares, in parallel with IP aftershocks

Across life-or-death fear drawn from legendary theology and onward to franchise returns and keen independent perspectives, 2025 appears poised to be the richest paired with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors stabilize the year with known properties, at the same time SVOD players pack the fall with discovery plays in concert with ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is drafting behind the momentum from a record 2024 festival run. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, hence 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: Prestige terror resurfaces

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in an immediate now. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. Pictures releases the last chapter within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re engages, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, an offering that markets itself. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It lands in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. 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 taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. By making possession inward rather than external, Young & Cursed joins a trend toward intimate character studies masked as genre.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is a clever angle. No overstuffed canon. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Franchise Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, led by Francis Lawrence, 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 horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

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 goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The upcoming scare season: next chapters, Originals, as well as A packed Calendar optimized for Scares

Dek: The incoming terror year crams in short order with a January traffic jam, thereafter stretches through June and July, and pushing into the holidays, marrying legacy muscle, creative pitches, and smart counter-scheduling. The major players are prioritizing right-sized spends, theatrical exclusivity first, and shareable marketing that position horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in programming grids, a lane that can expand when it resonates and still cushion the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that modestly budgeted chillers can own cultural conversation, 2024 continued the surge with director-led heat and surprise hits. The upswing rolled into 2025, where reawakened brands and awards-minded projects confirmed there is a market for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a grid that feels more orchestrated than usual across players, with intentional bunching, a equilibrium of brand names and original hooks, and a re-energized strategy on theater exclusivity that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Buyers contend the space now performs as a schedule utility on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on almost any weekend, provide a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that appear on opening previews and stay strong through the second frame if the release satisfies. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern indicates confidence in that approach. The slate opens with a weighty January run, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also includes the tightening integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and broaden at the timely point.

A further high-level trend is brand curation across unified worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another return. They are looking to package story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a re-angled tone or a lead change that ties a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the concurrently, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are prioritizing real-world builds, makeup and prosthetics and vivid settings. That combination yields 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and surprise, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two marquee entries 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 lead, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative stance points to a classic-referencing bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push rooted in classic imagery, character previews, and a staggered trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will drive broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever owns the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is straightforward, heartbroken, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an digital partner that grows into a lethal partner. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and snackable content that melds romance and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a proper title to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are treated as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date offers Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček guides, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror shot that leans into global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, continuing a trusty supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is describing as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build assets around mythos, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions 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 centered on immersive craft and period speech, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is favorable.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a pacing that optimizes both week-one demand and subscription bumps in the downstream. Prime Video blends catalogue additions with international acquisitions and brief theater runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using seasonal hubs, horror hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival acquisitions, locking in horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a one-two of precision theatrical plays and quick platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a curated basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with acclaimed directors or celebrity-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, refined for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception drives. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using limited theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Known brands versus new stories

By number, 2026 is weighted toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The question, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a new voice. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the team and cast is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent comps help explain the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and stretch the story. 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to interlace chapters through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind 2026 horror indicate a continued preference for hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that leans on unease and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and creates shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature execution imp source and sets, which fit with fan-con activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a stranded thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Early-year through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 opens February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a late-September window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited advance reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genes. 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 heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner escalates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: revived prestige horror saga’s second leg.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. 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 abrasive boss work to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, based on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that plays with the terror of a child’s unreliable perceptions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-grade and A-list fronted ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production booked for 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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further extends again, with a new clan tethered to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-precise speech and elemental fear. Rating: pending. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three pragmatic forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and shorter 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 beaten straight-to-streaming debuts. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can seize a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will line up across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The breakout hunt 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 leverage those opportunities. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner useful reference 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, 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 leans brutal, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and visuals 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 Shapes Up Strong

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.