Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a bone chilling horror feature, bowing October 2025 across major platforms

A haunting paranormal horror tale from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an age-old force when foreigners become pawns in a satanic ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping narrative of living through and age-old darkness that will transform scare flicks this spooky time. Realized by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and atmospheric tale follows five people who find themselves caught in a cut-off wooden structure under the malignant manipulation of Kyra, a haunted figure claimed by a timeless sacrosanct terror. Get ready to be shaken by a motion picture ride that harmonizes gut-punch terror with mystical narratives, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored foundation in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is reimagined when the beings no longer come externally, but rather from their core. This represents the malevolent part of each of them. The result is a enthralling moral showdown where the tension becomes a relentless tug-of-war between moral forces.


In a desolate forest, five friends find themselves contained under the ominous sway and spiritual invasion of a mysterious woman. As the cast becomes paralyzed to withstand her rule, cut off and followed by presences unfathomable, they are forced to deal with their greatest panics while the seconds without pause edges forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and connections fracture, pressuring each survivor to scrutinize their self and the concept of self-determination itself. The tension intensify with every passing moment, delivering a paranormal ride that marries spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to evoke core terror, an malevolence from ancient eras, channeling itself through emotional fractures, and examining a force that strips down our being when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the takeover begins, and that turn is harrowing because it is so unshielded.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be released for audiences beginning from October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing audiences from coast to coast can experience this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its initial teaser, which has racked up over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Join this life-altering fall into madness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these ghostly lessons about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, making-of footage, and alerts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the official digital haunt.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 American release plan Mixes myth-forward possession, signature indie scares, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from survivor-centric dread grounded in primordial scripture and extending to legacy revivals plus sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is shaping up as horror’s most layered combined with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio powerhouses lock in tentpoles with franchise anchors, concurrently SVOD players load up the fall with debut heat together with archetypal fear. On the festival side, the artisan tier is buoyed by the backdraft from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are disciplined, accordingly 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

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

The top end is active. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 accelerates.

Universal Pictures begins the calendar with a big gambit: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into 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 translation rendered as pared-down fear. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate releases the last chapter from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the entry offers emotional coda while tackling one of their notorious real cases. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: period tinged dread, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. The ante is higher this round, 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 next entry deepens the tale, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It opens in December, securing the winter cap.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus lacing three time frames tied to a mass vanishing. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the title blends fear with dramatic gravity. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is destined for a fall landing.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, 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.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. It is an astute call. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. 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 Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

The midnight bench, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, hums from execution, not mere titling. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed 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.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror reemerges
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.

Streamers grow fangs
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

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.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: Sequels, universe starters, and also A loaded Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The brand-new horror cycle builds right away with a January wave, before it runs through the summer months, and continuing into the late-year period, mixing legacy muscle, new voices, and savvy counterplay. Studios and streamers are committing to smart costs, theatrical leads, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these films into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the dependable swing in release strategies, a corner that can accelerate when it connects and still mitigate the floor when it underperforms. After the 2023 year demonstrated to decision-makers that modestly budgeted chillers can lead cultural conversation, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and stealth successes. The run moved into 2025, where legacy revivals and elevated films made clear there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that play globally. The sum for 2026 is a grid that shows rare alignment across the field, with strategic blocks, a spread of marquee IP and original hooks, and a refocused priority on theater exclusivity that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the genre now functions as a flex slot on the slate. Horror can bow on almost any weekend, supply a tight logline for marketing and vertical videos, and outperform with ticket buyers that come out on advance nights and keep coming through the second frame if the movie satisfies. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 mapping exhibits confidence in that logic. The year commences with a loaded January block, then taps spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while reserving space for a September to October window that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and beyond. The grid also includes the greater integration of specialty arms and home platforms that can grow from platform, ignite recommendations, and grow at the sweet spot.

A click site notable top-line trend is legacy care across interlocking continuities and established properties. The companies are not just making another next film. They are looking to package lineage with a headline quality, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a new installment to a classic era. At the in tandem, the filmmakers behind the eagerly awaited originals are leaning into material texture, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That alloy provides the 2026 slate a smart balance of familiarity and discovery, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount leads early with two marquee entries that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the lead, signaling it as both a baton pass and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a classic-referencing angle without going over the last two entries’ sisters thread. Anticipate a campaign driven by heritage visuals, intro reveals, and a tease cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek four-quadrant chatter through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick updates to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is tight, sorrow-tinged, and easily pitched: a grieving man activates an intelligent companion that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to bring back uncanny-valley stunts and bite-size content that fuses companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an teaser payoff closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. His projects are marketed as must-see filmmaker statements, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that signal tone without plot the concept. The late-month date opens a lane to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a in-your-face, hands-on effects style can feel prestige on a tight budget. Position this as a hard-R summer horror hit that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, keeping a evergreen supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch progresses. Sony has repositioned on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both longtime followers and novices. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around world-building, and monster design, 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 sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time circling werewolf lore. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is enthusiastic.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a cadence that fortifies both first-week urgency and viewer acquisition in the late-window. Prime Video continues to mix third-party pickups with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data supports it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using editorial spots, fright rows, and curated strips to prolong the run on the annual genre haul. Netflix plays opportunist about original films and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops premieres with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a hybrid of targeted theatrical exposure and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or marquee packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation intensifies.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 track with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a cinema-first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception allows. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using mini theatrical to fuel evangelism that fuels their user base.

Franchises versus originals

By tilt, 2026 favors the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on name recognition. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is bringing forward relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a buzzed-about director. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival-thriller premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is known enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Rolling three-year comps clarify the method. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that kept clean windows did not block a parallel release from working when the brand was robust. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances 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 lensed sequentially, provides the means for marketing to relate entries through character arcs and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without lulls.

Production craft signals

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued move toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that highlights mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely warm the market to this aesthetic in deep-dive features and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on monster realization and design, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel essential. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is busy. 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 moody palate cleanser amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the tone spread opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Pre-summer months set up the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a shoulder season window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely reinforced by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited asset reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card redemption.

Title briefs within the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s virtual companion evolves into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 hard-edged boss scramble to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. 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 confidential in official materials. Logline: A from-today rework that returns the monster to menace, built on Cronin’s material craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that toys with the horror of a child’s tricky POV. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and star-led occult chiller.

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 needles current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 flares, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further opens again, with a new clan snared by ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: closely held. Rating: TBA. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

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 time-true diction and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three execution-level forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined 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 drops. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will jostle across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 low-to-mid 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 surprise over-performer 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance 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 endorse 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, audio design, and cinematography 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, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is brand power where it counts, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, hold the mystery, and let the shudders sell the seats.