Antediluvian Terror returns: Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 on global platforms

An chilling ghostly scare-fest from narrative craftsman / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic entity when strangers become tools in a demonic struggle. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching journey of perseverance and archaic horror that will redefine terror storytelling this fall. Visualized by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and eerie fearfest follows five unacquainted souls who arise sealed in a secluded structure under the unfriendly dominion of Kyra, a mysterious girl controlled by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Prepare to be enthralled by a big screen journey that integrates bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a enduring motif in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reimagined when the entities no longer come outside the characters, but rather from within. This marks the most hidden facet of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal psychological battle where the events becomes a perpetual push-pull between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wilderness, five young people find themselves stuck under the malicious grip and control of a uncanny person. As the cast becomes powerless to break her influence, cut off and tracked by forces beyond comprehension, they are made to wrestle with their inner demons while the timeline without pause strikes toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, suspicion surges and links fracture, pushing each soul to scrutinize their personhood and the integrity of independent thought itself. The cost grow with every fleeting time, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines mystical fear with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover raw dread, an entity from ancient eras, manipulating human fragility, and testing a will that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra meant channeling something rooted in terror. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that transition is shocking because it is so deep.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure subscribers anywhere can engage with this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has been viewed over a viral response.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, spreading the horror to a worldwide audience.


Mark your calendar for this unforgettable fall into madness. Experience *Young & Cursed* this launch day to explore these dark realities about the psyche.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle U.S. rollouts blends old-world possession, festival-born jolts, in parallel with legacy-brand quakes

From survivor-centric dread drawn from legendary theology to returning series plus keen independent perspectives, 2025 is coalescing into the most dimensioned together with calculated campaign year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. Major studios lay down anchors using marquee IP, as OTT services front-load the fall with emerging auteurs set against primordial unease. Meanwhile, indie storytellers is catching the backdraft from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, though in this cycle, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s pipeline kicks off the frame with a headline swing: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. 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. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Directed by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer eases, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: period tinged dread, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It books December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a lock for fall streaming.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

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

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Scripted and led 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. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is an astute call. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. 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 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.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

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 is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival hype becomes 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.

Near Term Outlook: 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 like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: brand plays, universe starters, alongside A jammed Calendar engineered for jolts

Dek The brand-new genre year crowds from day one with a January bottleneck, from there extends through the mid-year, and straight through the holidays, balancing franchise firepower, untold stories, and shrewd counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are committing to tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that shape these pictures into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has turned into the sturdy option in studio slates, a corner that can grow when it breaks through and still buffer the exposure when it falls short. After 2023 signaled to greenlighters that cost-conscious genre plays can dominate mainstream conversation, 2024 extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and unexpected risers. The tailwind translated to 2025, where reboots and prestige plays made clear there is capacity for multiple flavors, from returning installments to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the industry, with obvious clusters, a spread of brand names and novel angles, and a sharpened stance on cinema windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now slots in as a wildcard on the schedule. Horror can debut on many corridors, yield a easy sell for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with crowds that show up on advance nights and continue through the subsequent weekend if the release works. Post a work stoppage lag, the 2026 pattern signals conviction in that engine. The calendar kicks off with a busy January run, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while keeping space for a fall run that flows toward Halloween and into November. The program also spotlights the expanded integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can platform and widen, stoke social talk, and roll out at the inflection point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just pushing another entry. They are looking to package brand continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a reframed mood or a star attachment that reconnects a new entry to a vintage era. At the very same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating physical effects work, real effects and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a smart balance of comfort and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

The majors’ 2026 approach

Paramount establishes early momentum with two spotlight pushes 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 forefront, setting it up as both a handoff and a foundation-forward character-first story. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave fueled by signature symbols, character spotlights, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm targeting 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 development for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will hunt mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three distinct bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s campaign likely to replay uncanny-valley stunts and micro spots that threads companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely considered the feature developed under temporary titles 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 branding reveal to become an earned moment closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are positioned as marquee events, with a minimalist tease and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween runway creates space for Universal to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has established that a blood-soaked, physical-effects centered treatment can feel premium on a moderate cost. Frame it as a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that embraces overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a trusty supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has often excelled.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is calling a new take 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 players and new audiences. The fall slot offers Sony space to build campaign pieces around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can boost format premiums and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in careful craft and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform strategies for 2026 run on familiar rails. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a pacing that amplifies both first-week urgency and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with worldwide buys and select theatrical runs when the data signals it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in library pulls, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to prolong the run on 2026 genre cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about first-party entries and festival acquisitions, confirming horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a laddered of precision theatrical plays and accelerated platforming that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a bespoke basis. The platform has proven amenable to invest in select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly activity when the genre conversation peaks.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 arc 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 pitch is direct: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-first horror with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using small theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, 2026 tilts in favor of the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French-tinted vision from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. 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 crash-survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf roots in era detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the cast-creatives package is grounded enough to drive advance ticketing and early previews.

Recent-year comps make sense of the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that maintained windows did not deter a day-date try from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror popped in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a return of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters shot consecutively, lets marketing to thread films through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The craft conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued move toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers grain and menace rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for deep sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in feature stories and department features before rolling out a tease that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta pivot that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster aesthetics and world-building, which play well in fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel must-have. Look for trailers that accent razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid marquee brands. The month finishes 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 stiff, but the range of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May prime the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late summer into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a early fall window that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into have a peek here Halloween weekend, likely paired with a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited asset reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift-card burn.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s machine mate becomes something murderously loving. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power flips and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, founded on Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 closed-door haunting tale that routes the horror through a child’s shifting point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. 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 rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 erupts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-first horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three practical forces inform this lineup. First, production that slowed or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Another factor is the scheduling math. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can command a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where 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 maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, sound field, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.