Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons primeval malevolence, a spine tingling feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

An chilling metaphysical terror film from cinematographer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an mythic force when unknowns become proxies in a hellish trial. Releasing October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving tale of continuance and forgotten curse that will resculpt scare flicks this autumn. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody feature follows five people who come to stuck in a far-off shack under the ominous grip of Kyra, a troubled woman dominated by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Anticipate to be absorbed by a narrative journey that melds gut-punch terror with mystical narratives, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a mainstay concept in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is challenged when the beings no longer come externally, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the haunting side of these individuals. The result is a harrowing identity crisis where the drama becomes a soul-crushing confrontation between innocence and sin.


In a wilderness-stricken forest, five young people find themselves stuck under the ominous sway and inhabitation of a secretive being. As the team becomes paralyzed to evade her curse, cut off and followed by terrors impossible to understand, they are made to endure their deepest fears while the time brutally moves toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia amplifies and partnerships crack, driving each cast member to reflect on their values and the integrity of volition itself. The cost mount with every passing moment, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes occult fear with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to awaken ancestral fear, an threat before modern man, emerging via mental cracks, and challenging a force that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is ignorant until the takeover begins, and that shift is emotionally raw because it is so visceral.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing audiences across the world can dive into this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has collected over notable views.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, presenting the nightmare to thrill-seekers globally.


Don’t miss this cinematic descent into hell. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to confront these ghostly lessons about the mind.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and news directly from production, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate weaves old-world possession, festival-born jolts, together with legacy-brand quakes

From survivor-centric dread infused with scriptural legend as well as franchise returns together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned paired with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios lock in tentpoles using marquee IP, while OTT services crowd the fall with new voices paired with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is drafting behind the momentum of 2024’s record festival wave. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, yet in 2025, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline begins the calendar with a bold swing: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, inside today’s landscape. Guided by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. timed for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Led by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re teams, and the memorable motifs return: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It lands in December, locking down the winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters bet on familiarity, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable with Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed by 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. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

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 is a clever angle. No overinflated mythology. No continuity burden. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest has a thick horror program this time. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

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

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: 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. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror resurges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next fear release year: next chapters, standalone ideas, together with A stacked Calendar Built For frights

Dek: The fresh genre calendar stacks right away with a January traffic jam, then stretches through the mid-year, and far into the December corridor, fusing name recognition, novel approaches, and tactical counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are relying on smart costs, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-driven marketing that convert these films into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has grown into the consistent lever in studio slates, a pillar that can lift when it breaks through and still insulate the drag when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for decision-makers that low-to-mid budget shockers can lead the national conversation, 2024 held pace with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to the 2025 frame, where returns and festival-grade titles underscored there is an opening for multiple flavors, from continued chapters to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the field, with clear date clusters, a mix of familiar brands and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on exclusive windows that fuel later windows on premium rental and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the space now works like a flex slot on the calendar. Horror can launch on open real estate, furnish a clear pitch for trailers and platform-native cuts, and overperform with demo groups that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the second frame if the title delivers. After a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 configuration underscores assurance in that setup. The year rolls out with a busy January block, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that pushes into the Halloween frame and past Halloween. The grid also underscores the tightening integration of specialty distributors and OTT outlets that can platform a title, generate chatter, and roll out at the optimal moment.

A companion trend is brand strategy across unified worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just making another follow-up. They are seeking to position threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that flags a tonal shift or a casting choice that ties a new entry to a classic era. At the same time, the visionaries behind the most anticipated originals are celebrating real-world builds, practical gags and site-specific worlds. That pairing gives 2026 a robust balance of trust and shock, which is what works overseas.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount fires first with two prominent bets that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Cameras are rolling in Atlanta, and the narrative stance points to a legacy-leaning angle without repeating the last two entries’ sisters thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive fueled by brand visuals, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence timed to late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects 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 angle the campaign will play up. As a summer relief option, this one will go after mass reach through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three distinct plays. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tidy, heartbroken, and commercial: a grieving man onboards an virtual partner that turns into a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to iterate on off-kilter promo beats and short-form creative that melds attachment and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a official title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. The filmmaker’s films are framed as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-October frame gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub leading. The franchise has long shown that a raw, practical-first strategy can feel big on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that spotlights international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio books two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, extending a trusty supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build materials around universe detail, and creature effects, elements that can accelerate deluxe auditorium demand and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and dialect, this time circling werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a signal of faith in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that expands both premiere heat and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together licensed content with global acquisitions and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in back-catalog play, using prominent placements, seasonal hubs, and editorial rows to maximize the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival buys, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and elevating as drops rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a laddered of precision releases and fast windowing that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with accomplished filmmakers or A-list packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still pulls from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 sequence 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 setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, elevated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the late-season weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception justifies. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using targeted theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subs.

Brands and originals

By volume, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage franchise value. The watch-out, as ever, is brand erosion. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Originals and visionary-led titles deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not prevent a simultaneous release test from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror exceeded expectations in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel new when they alter lens and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The dual-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to sustain campaign assets without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind the upcoming entries hint at a continued turn toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Promo should that elevates unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and earns shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature design and production design, which favor booth activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that spotlight hyper-detailed sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid larger brand plays. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival shocker from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

February through May prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late summer into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate escalates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. 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 severe boss push to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic tilts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fright, built on Cronin’s practical craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that leverages the unease of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-supported and celebrity-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that needles current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. 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 detonates, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new household snared by residual nightmares. Rating: pending. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survivalist horror over action fireworks. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 his comment is here era-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 cost-efficient 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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a buffet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a cold, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value 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 grain, acoustics, 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.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, guard the secrets, and let the screams sell the seats.