Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, bowing October 2025 across top digital platforms

One hair-raising ghostly fear-driven tale from scriptwriter / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an archaic force when unknowns become conduits in a devilish contest. Dropping October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes Movies, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching depiction of perseverance and forgotten curse that will revamp scare flicks this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic tale follows five young adults who come to locked in a wilderness-bound shelter under the hostile power of Kyra, a female presence possessed by a millennia-old biblical demon. Arm yourself to be captivated by a audio-visual spectacle that fuses intense horror with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demonic control has been a recurring trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is inverted when the demons no longer manifest from elsewhere, but rather inside their minds. This echoes the malevolent layer of these individuals. The result is a harrowing emotional conflict where the narrative becomes a intense confrontation between light and darkness.


In a remote backcountry, five teens find themselves trapped under the ghastly rule and infestation of a obscure character. As the cast becomes paralyzed to oppose her rule, detached and hunted by spirits indescribable, they are made to wrestle with their worst nightmares while the timeline without pause pushes forward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion amplifies and alliances disintegrate, coercing each individual to examine their character and the principle of liberty itself. The stakes escalate with every second, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes paranormal dread with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to channel basic terror, an presence born of forgotten ages, manipulating our fears, and highlighting a curse that forces self-examination when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Embodying Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is in denial until the spirit seizes her, and that transformation is bone-chilling because it is so emotional.”

Distribution & Access

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing horror lovers anywhere can experience this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its release of trailer #1, which has received over strong viewer count.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, extending the thrill to scare fans abroad.


Don’t miss this heart-stopping ride through nightmares. Watch *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to witness these nightmarish insights about human nature.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit youngandcursed.com.





U.S. horror’s tipping point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts braids together old-world possession, independent shockers, and returning-series thunder

Running from pressure-cooker survival tales steeped in near-Eastern lore to franchise returns in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most textured combined with precision-timed year since the mid-2010s.

Call it full, but it is also focused. Major studios hold down the year via recognizable brands, at the same time platform operators front-load the fall with unboxed visions plus archetypal fear. At the same time, the independent cohort is propelled by the afterglow of a peak 2024 circuit. Since Halloween is the prized date, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and now, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are intentional, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 set the base, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a confident swing: a refreshed Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. dated for mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re boards, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, and eerie supernatural logic. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While the big screen favors titles you know, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

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

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No swollen lore. No sequel clutter. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

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

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Franchise Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, guided 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 a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror continues in theaters, in narrower curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new terror lineup: Sequels, non-franchise titles, paired with A Crowded Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The fresh horror season crowds from day one with a January pile-up, then unfolds through midyear, and carrying into the late-year period, combining legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and well-timed counterprogramming. Studios and platforms are leaning into efficient budgets, box-office-first windows, and buzz-forward plans that position genre titles into cross-demo moments.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror marketplace has shown itself to be the steady tool in release strategies, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still cushion the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year re-taught leaders that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer social chatter, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and quiet over-performers. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where resurrections and festival-grade titles confirmed there is room for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The result for the 2026 slate is a slate that presents tight coordination across distributors, with strategic blocks, a spread of known properties and untested plays, and a revived priority on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium video on demand and home platforms.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now acts as a swing piece on the programming map. Horror can launch on a wide range of weekends, generate a simple premise for teasers and shorts, and exceed norms with crowds that show up on Thursday previews and sustain through the second frame if the entry works. Post a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping indicates confidence in that engine. The slate opens with a front-loaded January run, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a October build that stretches into All Hallows period and beyond. The grid also highlights the stronger partnership of specialty distributors and platforms that can stage a platform run, fuel WOM, and roll out at the proper time.

A second macro trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and established properties. Distribution groups are not just producing another follow-up. They are trying to present continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that indicates a recalibrated tone or a casting choice that ties a new entry to a heyday. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the high-profile originals are championing hands-on technique, special makeup and site-specific worlds. That combination yields 2026 a vital pairing of assurance and shock, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, steering it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-first story. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach points to a roots-evoking treatment without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with signature symbols, character previews, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also relaunches 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 as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will go after wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick turns to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three unique releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is clean, tragic, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an synthetic partner that grows into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a packed window, with the marketing arm likely to echo off-kilter promo beats and brief clips that fuses companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under working names 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 public title to become an earned moment closer to the first look. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s pictures are treated as auteur events, with a opaque teaser and a next wave of trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway offers Universal room to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel top-tier on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a splatter summer horror hit that maximizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio rolls out two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is marketing as a ground-zero restart 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 sharper mandate to serve both devotees and fresh viewers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build materials around lore, and creature work, elements that can drive premium format interest and fan events.

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 grounded in meticulous craft and period speech, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films move to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a stair-step that amplifies both debut momentum and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video combines licensed content with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library curation, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the 2026 genre total. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a paired of focused cinema runs and speedy platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for monthly activity when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 slate with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, reimagined for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a traditional theatrical plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to go wider. That positioning has worked well for prestige horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception supports. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is underscoring relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a European tilt from a rising filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. 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, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the deal build is known enough to spark pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Recent comps outline the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that respected streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from hitting when the brand was compelling. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on 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 filmed consecutively, lets marketing to cross-link entries through character and theme and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Behind-the-camera trends

The craft rooms behind this slate point to a continued lean toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead features and technical spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for rubbery nastiness, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that centers an original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

How the year maps out

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 debuts February 27 with brand energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a minimalist tease strategy and limited previews that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can win the holiday when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A mourning man’s machine mate grows into something romantically lethal. 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 Young & Cursed additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 prickly boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command inverts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s practical craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. 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 residential haunting tale that mediates the fear via a youth’s unreliable subjective view. Rating: pending. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-supported and name-above-title eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a another family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A clean reboot designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on pure survival horror over action fireworks. Rating: to be announced. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: TBA. Production: active. 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 era-accurate language and primal menace. Rating: pending. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 demanded space on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more rigorous about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, metered scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 search for sleepers 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play 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 wintry, 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 scale over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sonics, and image-making 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 Looks Exciting

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.