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

This chilling otherworldly suspense story from screenwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic force when unfamiliar people become tokens in a hellish experiment. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of struggle and ancient evil that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Created by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and cinematic cinema piece follows five figures who snap to imprisoned in a far-off dwelling under the aggressive command of Kyra, a haunted figure inhabited by a biblical-era holy text monster. Prepare to be ensnared by a visual display that harmonizes deep-seated panic with folklore, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is radically shifted when the forces no longer come externally, but rather from deep inside. This symbolizes the shadowy aspect of the victims. The result is a intense identity crisis where the intensity becomes a ongoing contest between purity and corruption.


In a barren woodland, five individuals find themselves isolated under the ominous presence and inhabitation of a unknown spirit. As the team becomes paralyzed to reject her grasp, exiled and chased by terrors beyond comprehension, they are thrust to face their emotional phantoms while the moments without pity draws closer toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and relationships collapse, demanding each member to question their existence and the principle of autonomy itself. The danger magnify with every minute, delivering a scare-fueled ride that intertwines mystical fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon basic terror, an threat that predates humanity, feeding on fragile psyche, and navigating a being that dismantles free will when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra demanded embodying something far beyond human desperation. She is innocent until the curse activates, and that transformation is soul-crushing because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be streamed for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving fans everywhere can face this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has seen over six-figure audience.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, extending the thrill to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this mind-warping exploration of dread. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to experience these fearful discoveries about the mind.


For teasers, making-of footage, and promotions from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across fan hubs and visit the movie’s homepage.





American horror’s sea change: the 2025 cycle U.S. Slate fuses Mythic Possession, indie terrors, plus IP aftershocks

Beginning with survival horror inspired by legendary theology and onward to series comebacks together with pointed art-house angles, 2025 stands to become the most variegated and strategic year in ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. the big studios lock in tentpoles via recognizable brands, in parallel streaming platforms prime the fall with emerging auteurs together with scriptural shivers. Meanwhile, festival-forward creators is carried on the tailwinds of a banner 2024 fest year. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, notably this year, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, as a result 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate opens the year with a marquee bet: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. landing in mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. Pictures sets loose the finale of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma as narrative engine, plus otherworld rules that chill. The ante is higher this round, with more excavation of the “grabber” canon and family hauntings.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The new chapter enriches the lore, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, cornering year end horror.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a two hander body horror spiral including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy 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.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No canon weight. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Beyond that, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda dot the year, often holding for windows or late pickups.

Signals and Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

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

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Fall stack and winter swing card

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 scrap for air. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The approaching Horror year to come: Sequels, new stories, together with A packed Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek: The new horror season clusters in short order with a January cluster, before it extends through June and July, and continuing into the late-year period, weaving franchise firepower, fresh ideas, and calculated alternatives. The major players are relying on mid-range economics, box-office-first windows, and influencer-ready assets that turn these offerings into all-audience topics.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has turned into the steady option in studio calendars, a lane that can scale when it performs and still limit the losses when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that mid-range entries can command the zeitgeist, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with director-led heat and surprise hits. The head of steam fed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and elevated films confirmed there is a market for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a programming that appears tightly organized across distributors, with mapped-out bands, a pairing of recognizable IP and new packages, and a renewed strategy on exhibition windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium on-demand and digital services.

Distribution heads claim the genre now slots in as a wildcard on the programming map. The genre can roll out on many corridors, supply a clean hook for marketing and short-form placements, and outpace with moviegoers that come out on Thursday nights and sustain through the second weekend if the entry works. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence exhibits certainty in that model. The year commences with a busy January stretch, then leans on spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a late-year stretch that stretches into the Halloween frame and afterwards. The grid also reflects the deeper integration of arthouse labels and SVOD players that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand curation across linked properties and long-running brands. Studios are not just mounting another chapter. They are working to present lore continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a talent selection that links a new installment to a vintage era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing physical effects work, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That pairing hands 2026 a smart balance of recognition and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount marks the early tempo with two front-of-slate projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the core, setting it up as both a cross-generational handoff and a return-to-roots character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign fueled by franchise iconography, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm slated for late fall. Distribution navigate to this website 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 reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will drive wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick pivots to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three separate plays. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, soulful, and premise-first: a grieving man purchases an intelligent companion that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a thick month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds companionship and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are positioned as must-see filmmaker statements, with a hinting teaser and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate 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 leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has consistently shown that a blood-soaked, practical-effects forward treatment can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Look for a red-band summer horror hit that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio sets two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a proven supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is framing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 clearer mandate to serve both devotees and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around lore, and creature work, elements that can lift large-format demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror driven by textural authenticity and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is favorable.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. The Universal horror run feed copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that elevates both initial urgency and sign-up spikes in the tail. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data supports it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library curation, using well-timed internal promotions, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries with shorter lead times and coalescing around rollouts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a two-step of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to take on select projects with acclaimed directors or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for retention when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two label plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, reimagined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Be ready for 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 as partners, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on household recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects add air. 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, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the team and cast is anchored enough to generate pre-sales and Thursday-night crowds.

Recent-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a exclusive window model that held distribution windows did not stop a parallel release from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, precision craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, lets marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to keep materials circulating without long breaks.

Craft and creative trends

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate forecast a continued preference for material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Watch for a drive that elevates aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for textured sound and a earthy, elemental chill on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a first look that withholds plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and produces shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature execution and sets, which work nicely for expo activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that highlight precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in premium houses.

Calendar cadence

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month closes 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 variety of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Winter into spring prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Late-season stretch leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil follows September 18, a pre-October slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited previews that elevate concept over story.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift card usage.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s genome. 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 heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to chill, founded on Cronin’s in-camera craft and encroaching 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 setup that routes the horror through a minor’s wavering internal vantage. Rating: forthcoming. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A comic send-up that needles today’s horror trends and true-crime buzz. Rating: pending. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new family snared by long-buried horrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: pending. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: moving forward. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming placements. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, creating valuable space for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will jostle across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 value-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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. 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.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you keep the discourse going and the seats filled without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, smart allocations, 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, aural design, and visual design 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 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is IP strength where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.