Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up primordial evil, a nerve shredding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on major streaming services

A blood-curdling ghostly nightmare movie from cinematographer / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an prehistoric fear when unrelated individuals become vehicles in a supernatural struggle. Available this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will resculpt the fear genre this season. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and claustrophobic screenplay follows five teens who emerge stranded in a unreachable cabin under the sinister rule of Kyra, a haunted figure claimed by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Anticipate to be immersed by a visual display that weaves together raw fear with biblical origins, arriving on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a mainstay trope in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is radically shifted when the presences no longer come externally, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the most primal element of the group. The result is a enthralling psychological battle where the intensity becomes a intense battle between moral forces.


In a isolated natural abyss, five campers find themselves isolated under the ominous effect and grasp of a unidentified female presence. As the team becomes incapable to escape her power, abandoned and attacked by spirits inconceivable, they are confronted to face their core terrors while the time relentlessly edges forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread deepens and friendships shatter, prompting each protagonist to reconsider their character and the structure of freedom of choice itself. The pressure accelerate with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that integrates unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract primal fear, an presence born of forgotten ages, manipulating soul-level flaws, and questioning a spirit that dismantles free will when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is unseeing until the invasion happens, and that transition is shocking because it is so deep.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—delivering fans in all regions can dive into this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow-through to its initial teaser, which has garnered over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, presenting the nightmare to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this bone-rattling descent into hell. Explore *Young & Cursed* this fall premiere to see these terrifying truths about existence.


For film updates, director cuts, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Spanning life-or-death fear inspired by ancient scripture and including canon extensions in concert with acutely observed indies, 2025 is shaping up as the genre’s most multifaceted as well as deliberate year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors set cornerstones through proven series, while OTT services stack the fall with unboxed visions alongside archetypal fear. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is drafting behind the echoes from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal’s schedule starts the year with a confident swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. arriving 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.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer fades, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Scott Derrickson returns, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma centered writing, and eerie supernatural logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It hits in December, buttoning the final window.

Platform Plays: Slim budgets, major punch

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror duet led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It is a clever angle. No overweight mythology. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. 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, led by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror retakes ground
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

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

The big screen is a trust exercise
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Autumn density and winter pivot

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will have to fight for oxygen. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar engineered for nightmares

Dek The new genre calendar stacks from day one with a January traffic jam, then carries through the summer months, and pushing into the December corridor, combining name recognition, creative pitches, and calculated counterweight. Distributors with platforms are focusing on right-sized spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that position these pictures into national conversation.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

Horror has shown itself to be the sturdy option in distribution calendars, a category that can surge when it catches and still safeguard the risk when it fails to connect. After 2023 re-taught greenlighters that efficiently budgeted shockers can dominate audience talk, 2024 carried the beat with high-profile filmmaker pieces and slow-burn breakouts. The head of steam pushed into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries highlighted there is space for diverse approaches, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a grid that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted attention on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on paid VOD and platforms.

Executives say the category now operates like a utility player on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, provide a sharp concept for spots and vertical videos, and exceed norms with moviegoers that line up on advance nights and hold through the sophomore frame if the title delivers. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits conviction in that logic. The slate kicks off with a crowded January block, then turns to spring and early summer for audience offsets, while reserving space for a fall corridor that pushes into the Halloween frame and into the next week. The arrangement also reflects the greater integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can stage a platform run, stoke social talk, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is brand management across connected story worlds and heritage properties. Studios are not just releasing another return. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a marquee sheen, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a re-angled tone or a star attachment that connects a new entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That fusion gives 2026 a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount plants an early flag with two centerpiece pushes that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push driven by franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a promo sequence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount theatrical.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a non-tentpole summer option, this one will hunt wide appeal through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever drives the social talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is simple, soulful, and easily pitched: a grieving man implements an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on viral uncanny stunts and bite-size content that hybridizes romance and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely understood to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a official title to become an event moment closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are marketed as auteur events, with a minimalist tease and a second wave of trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date lets the studio to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning method can feel premium on a middle budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror hit that embraces international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both loyalists and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build marketing units around canon, and creature work, elements that can accelerate premium format interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and archaic language, this time focused on werewolf legend. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on proven patterns. The studio’s horror films land on copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a pacing that amplifies both opening-weekend urgency and trial spikes in the later window. Prime Video blends licensed titles with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data points to it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, Halloween hubs, and staff picks to sustain interest on lifetime take. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, locking in horror entries near their drops and positioning as event drops launches with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a staged of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has shown appetite to purchase select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for retention when the genre conversation swells.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 lane with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is uncomplicated: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, elevated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the October weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to go wider. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. 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 handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Legacy titles versus originals

By share, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a Francophone tone from a have a peek at this web-site fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the assembly is familiar enough to accelerate early sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the method. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently 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 linked-chapter plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, enables marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the upcoming entries suggest a continued turn toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that highlights aura and dread rather than CG roller-coasters, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a preview that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster realization and design, which favor convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is crowded. 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. 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 real, but the menu of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited asset reveals that prioritize concept over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and holiday gift-card burn.

Embedded title notes

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s algorithmic partner evolves into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: gothic-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 demanding boss scramble to survive on a remote island as the pecking order reverses and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, based on Cronin’s practical effects and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting narrative that threads the dread through a minor’s wavering internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. 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 returning creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that pokes at today’s horror trends and true crime preoccupations. Rating: rating forthcoming. 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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a unlucky family anchored to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on survival horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: forthcoming. Production: advancing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and elemental dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces frame this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage shareable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

There is also the slotting calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can seize a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where lean-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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing 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, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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, cut crisp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shocks sell the seats.