Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes ancient dread, a bone chilling horror feature, rolling out October 2025 across major platforms

This unnerving supernatural fright fest from writer / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an primeval entity when unfamiliar people become instruments in a hellish ritual. Launching this October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Brace yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping chronicle of resistance and archaic horror that will remodel genre cinema this scare season. Crafted by rising master of suspense Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and moody tale follows five lost souls who suddenly rise imprisoned in a secluded cottage under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a mysterious girl inhabited by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be ensnared by a motion picture spectacle that combines instinctive fear with spiritual backstory, releasing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Demon possession has been a well-established tradition in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the forces no longer form outside the characters, but rather from their psyche. This portrays the most primal corner of the players. The result is a relentless spiritual tug-of-war where the narrative becomes a constant contest between purity and corruption.


In a wilderness-stricken forest, five teens find themselves cornered under the ghastly presence and spiritual invasion of a obscure female presence. As the companions becomes incapacitated to oppose her dominion, disconnected and hunted by presences beyond comprehension, they are required to acknowledge their inner demons while the doomsday meter without pity ticks onward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and connections break, driving each survivor to doubt their core and the notion of independent thought itself. The intensity climb with every heartbeat, delivering a frightening tale that integrates ghostly evil with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to explore instinctual horror, an presence from prehistory, channeling itself through mental cracks, and highlighting a spirit that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra meant evoking something darker than pain. She is clueless until the entity awakens, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so private.”

Debut Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for public screening beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—giving users across the world can experience this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has pulled in over notable views.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be launched globally, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Don’t miss this haunted ride through nightmares. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this launch day to witness these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For bonus footage, filmmaker commentary, and insider scoops directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your favorite networks and visit our film’s homepage.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: the year 2025 stateside slate integrates legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from grit-forward survival fare suffused with primordial scripture and onward to installment follow-ups plus cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted along with carefully orchestrated year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, simultaneously OTT services pack the fall with discovery plays in concert with legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is buoyed by the kinetic energy of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The September, October gauntlet has become standard, yet in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are precise, accordingly 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The majors are assertive. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s pipeline fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a refashioned Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s slate sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Scott Derrickson is back, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: 70s style chill, trauma as theme, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Offerings: Lean budgets, heavy bite

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Opening theatrically late summer ahead of fall SVOD, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Rather than another exorcism film centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated mythology. No canon weight. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

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

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forecast: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The upcoming chiller season: returning titles, original films, and also A brimming Calendar tailored for screams

Dek: The new scare season builds in short order with a January glut, and then flows through summer, and running into the December corridor, braiding brand equity, new concepts, and calculated counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into right-sized spends, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that position the slate’s entries into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror marketplace has grown into the most reliable option in distribution calendars, a space that can lift when it performs and still cushion the downside when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year reconfirmed for greenlighters that cost-conscious fright engines can steer cultural conversation, the following year sustained momentum with signature-voice projects and slow-burn breakouts. The energy translated to 2025, where legacy revivals and awards-minded projects demonstrated there is room for several lanes, from sequel tracks to fresh IP that carry overseas. The sum for 2026 is a slate that feels more orchestrated than usual across the major shops, with clear date clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on box-office windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium home window and SVOD.

Studio leaders note the horror lane now performs as a swing piece on the grid. Horror can debut on open real estate, offer a simple premise for teasers and TikTok spots, and outperform with audiences that appear on first-look nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the movie works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 layout underscores trust in that playbook. The calendar commences with a stacked January run, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while reserving space for a late-year stretch that extends to Halloween and past the holiday. The schedule also underscores the deeper integration of specialized labels and home platforms that can stage a platform run, build word of mouth, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across connected story worlds and heritage properties. The players are not just pushing another chapter. They are shaping as lore continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that telegraphs a new tone or a cast configuration that binds a next entry to a early run. At the parallel to that, the visionaries behind the marquee originals are prioritizing practical craft, practical effects and vivid settings. That pairing provides 2026 a confident blend of comfort and newness, which is what works overseas.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two high-profile pushes that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the spine, angling it as both a legacy handover and a foundation-forward character study. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a classic-referencing framework without looping the last two entries’ sisters thread. Count on a promo wave anchored in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will generate mainstream recognition through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever leads trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is simple, melancholic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that evolves into a dangerous lover. The date slots it at the front of a crowded corridor, with Universal’s promo team likely to iterate on uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs intimacy and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a branding reveal to become an fan moment closer to the teaser. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are set up as creative events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that define feel without revealing the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to command 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, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has long shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a viscera-heavy summer horror charge that centers worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where Insidious has performed historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 explicit mandate to serve both devotees and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build materials around universe detail, and monster craft, elements that can drive format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by rigorous craft and archaic language, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus Features has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is supportive.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s horror titles transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video interleaves outside acquisitions with global pickups and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library pulls, using prominent placements, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the horror cume. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix originals and festival grabs, timing horror entries tight to release and turning into events premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of targeted cinema placements and fast windowing that converts WOM to subscribers. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a curated basis. The platform has indicated interest to invest in select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation spikes.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 arc with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, elevated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a theatrical rollout for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday dates to expand. That positioning has delivered for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By number, 2026 tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use marquee value. The potential drawback, as ever, is diminishing returns. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is centering character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is signaling a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf rests on period texture and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is known enough to accelerate early sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years frame the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that preserved streaming windows did not prevent a day-date move from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The back-to-back plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to interlace chapters through character web and themes and to keep assets in-market without pause points.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror signal a continued shift 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 aligns with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that centers creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in feature stories and craft coverage before rolling out a teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-referential reset that centers an original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature and environment design, which are ideal for booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel definitive. Look for trailers that emphasize disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that benefit on big speakers.

From winter to holidays

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 tonal palate cleanser amid big-brand pushes. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the menu of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited advance reveals that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, measured platforming, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to 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 loss-struck man’s synthetic partner escalates into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: mood-led weblink adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a rugged island as the control dynamic upends and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to menace, grounded in Cronin’s hands-on craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a kid’s flickering point of view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: fully shot. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven haunted-house suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that riffs on of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime manias. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for 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 spreads, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family snared by ancient dread. Rating: TBA. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on classic survival-horror tone over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: pending. Production: advancing. 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-specific language and ancient menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 launches. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will harvest shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

The slot calculus is real. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will share space across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where value-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 sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, acoustics, and 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 Shapes Up Strong

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand gravity where needed, original vision 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 near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the scares sell the seats.