Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives antediluvian malevolence, a spine tingling horror feature, launching Oct 2025 on global platforms

This chilling spectral scare-fest from scriptwriter / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an prehistoric terror when unfamiliar people become puppets in a malevolent maze. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s Play platform, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish narrative of struggle and mythic evil that will remodel fear-driven cinema this season. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and shadowy film follows five young adults who snap to caught in a wooded dwelling under the malignant control of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a two-thousand-year-old biblical demon. Be prepared to be immersed by a narrative adventure that combines intense horror with mystical narratives, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established element in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is subverted when the malevolences no longer come externally, but rather through their own souls. This portrays the most sinister side of all involved. The result is a edge-of-seat inner struggle where the intensity becomes a merciless confrontation between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned forest, five souls find themselves marooned under the malicious presence and inhabitation of a shadowy female presence. As the characters becomes powerless to combat her manipulation, marooned and tracked by forces unnamable, they are forced to battle their greatest panics while the time unceasingly ticks onward toward their doom.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust builds and partnerships crack, pressuring each survivor to evaluate their character and the principle of conscious will itself. The threat magnify with every instant, delivering a fear-soaked story that integrates otherworldly panic with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to dive into core terror, an curse rooted in antiquity, influencing psychological breaks, and confronting a will that strips down our being when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Performing as Kyra required summoning something rooted in terror. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that pivot is shocking because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that audiences no matter where they are can face this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its initial teaser, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, presenting the nightmare to scare fans abroad.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to acknowledge these haunting secrets about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, making-of footage, and insider scoops from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Current horror’s Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces Mythic Possession, festival-born jolts, together with IP aftershocks

Kicking off with life-or-death fear rooted in legendary theology and stretching into legacy revivals as well as cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is emerging as the most variegated plus precision-timed year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lay down anchors with familiar IP, as SVOD players front-load the fall with new perspectives in concert with scriptural shivers. Across the art-house lane, the artisan tier is drafting behind the carry from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with a headline swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, inside today’s landscape. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. landing in mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. Pictures unveils the final movement of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Though the formula is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, with ghostly inner logic. This pass pushes higher, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It bows in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a body horror duet anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative starring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Legacy Lines: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. 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.

Dials to Watch

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror reemerges
Entries like Together, Weapons, and Keeper shift back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. 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 hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The 2026 chiller calendar year ahead: next chapters, new stories, And A Crowded Calendar Built For screams

Dek: The new scare season crowds from day one with a January cluster, from there stretches through peak season, and deep into the holiday stretch, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and savvy release strategy. The big buyers and platforms are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that frame genre releases into water-cooler talk.

Horror’s status entering 2026

Horror filmmaking has established itself as the predictable swing in studio slates, a category that can expand when it hits and still protect the drawdown when it stumbles. After the 2023 year demonstrated to greenlighters that mid-range genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 held pace with high-profile filmmaker pieces and surprise hits. The run extended into the 2025 frame, where re-entries and elevated films highlighted there is appetite for multiple flavors, from legacy continuations to standalone ideas that translate worldwide. The upshot for 2026 is a programming that shows rare alignment across the market, with intentional bunching, a harmony of marquee IP and first-time concepts, and a re-energized emphasis on theatrical windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and platforms.

Distribution heads claim the genre now works like a utility player on the programming map. The genre can launch on a wide range of weekends, yield a tight logline for ad units and short-form placements, and punch above weight with ticket buyers that show up on advance nights and continue through the sophomore frame if the movie works. After a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 setup shows confidence in that playbook. The slate rolls out with a loaded January corridor, then turns to spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a October build that extends to holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The calendar also underscores the greater integration of arthouse labels and platforms that can platform a title, stoke social talk, and broaden at the right moment.

Another broad trend is legacy care across connected story worlds and classic IP. Major shops are not just producing another installment. They are working to present lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a title presentation that suggests a tonal shift or a casting pivot that links a new entry to a initial period. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are prioritizing physical effects work, practical effects and vivid settings. That pairing offers 2026 a smart balance of comfort and shock, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Studio by studio strategy signals

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the spine, presenting it as both a handoff and a heritage-centered character-centered film. The navigate to this website film is shooting in Atlanta, and the authorial approach indicates a heritage-honoring bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with recognizable motifs, character spotlights, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will build wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick turns to whatever rules pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three specific lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, grief-rooted, and concept-forward: a grieving man onboards an intelligent companion that mutates into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to renew eerie street stunts and short reels that blurs love and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official listing currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the initial tease. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are sold as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot gives the studio room to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has established that a blood-soaked, prosthetic-heavy approach can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Position this as a viscera-heavy summer horror jolt that pushes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio launches two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has long performed.

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 primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both devotees and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build assets around world-building, and creature work, elements that can lift premium booking interest and cosplayer momentum.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by textural authenticity and dialect, this time engaging werewolf myth. The distributor has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is favorable.

Streaming windows and tactics

Platform tactics for 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a structure that fortifies both initial urgency and subscriber lifts in the back half. Prime Video stitches together outside acquisitions with cross-border buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in deep cuts, using well-timed internal promotions, holiday hubs, and curated rows to stretch the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about originals and festival wins, timing horror entries toward the drop and making event-like launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of tailored theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror great post to read on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to acquire select projects with name filmmakers or star packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for sustained usage when the genre conversation builds.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s useful reference classic title. The promise is uncomplicated: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has suggested a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the September weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the Christmas corridor to expand. That positioning has proved effective for arthouse horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Plan on 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 in tandem, using small theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By volume, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage brand equity. The challenge, as ever, is diminishing returns. The practical approach is to market each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the packaging is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not deter a parallel release from winning when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and increase ambition. 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 two-step approach, with chapters shot in tandem, creates space for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without hiatuses.

How the films are being made

The shop talk behind these films forecast a continued lean toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that emphasizes texture and dread rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a atmospheric tease that leans on mood over plot, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta refresh that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will rise or fall on monster realization and design, which fit with convention activations and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Month-by-month map

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid headline IP. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth spreads.

February through May stage summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is tight. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Back half into fall leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a bridge slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and card redemption.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s synthetic partner evolves into something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her unyielding boss try to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic shifts and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to fright, anchored by Cronin’s tactile craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting premise that pipes the unease through a minor’s flickering inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a another family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-core horror over action spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBD. Production: underway. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and elemental menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why 2026 makes sense

Three hands-on forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and tighter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured 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 drops. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it succeeds.

Calendar math also matters. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can exploit a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

Budgets remain in the Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for expanded PLF presence 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 maximize those pockets. 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 icy, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, optimized footprints, 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 materiality, sound, 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 Looks Exciting

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand gravity where needed, auteur intent 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 last-minute boutique pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.