Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens ancient dread, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on global platforms

One eerie spiritual nightmare movie from narrative craftsman / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an archaic curse when outsiders become instruments in a demonic experiment. Airings begin this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of endurance and primeval wickedness that will resculpt genre cinema this harvest season. Brought to life by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody suspense flick follows five teens who snap to locked in a secluded cabin under the malignant will of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a time-worn scriptural evil. Arm yourself to be ensnared by a narrative outing that fuses primitive horror with spiritual backstory, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a well-established concept in the movies. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is radically shifted when the demons no longer arise from an outside force, but rather through their own souls. This mirrors the most sinister layer of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the events becomes a merciless conflict between light and darkness.


In a desolate woodland, five youths find themselves confined under the possessive rule and grasp of a haunted person. As the team becomes defenseless to combat her manipulation, marooned and preyed upon by spirits unimaginable, they are cornered to battle their deepest fears while the time unforgivingly runs out toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and relationships break, demanding each individual to examine their character and the principle of liberty itself. The stakes magnify with every passing moment, delivering a fear-soaked story that merges ghostly evil with human vulnerability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to uncover deep fear, an spirit beyond time, feeding on human fragility, and challenging a being that threatens selfhood when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something outside normal anguish. She is clueless until the demon emerges, and that flip is deeply unsettling because it is so close.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for streaming beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—guaranteeing watchers anywhere can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, making the film to viewers around the world.


Don’t miss this soul-jarring trip into the unknown. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to survive these spiritual awakenings about mankind.


For behind-the-scenes access, behind-the-scenes content, and press updates from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Today’s horror Turning Point: calendar year 2025 domestic schedule interlaces archetypal-possession themes, art-house nightmares, together with returning-series thunder

Ranging from pressure-cooker survival tales drawn from mythic scripture and onward to series comebacks paired with incisive indie visions, 2025 looks like the most textured plus strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors lock in tentpoles with familiar IP, concurrently platform operators load up the fall with first-wave breakthroughs plus legend-coded dread. At the same time, independent banners is riding the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. With Halloween holding the peak, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, though in this cycle, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are disciplined, which means 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal banner kicks off the frame with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, instead in a current-day frame. Guided by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher page-to-screen distilled into spare horror. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson again directs, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The new chapter enriches the lore, grows the animatronic horror lineup, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, cornering year end horror.

Platform Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a body horror chamber piece featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. Turning possession inward syncs Young & Cursed to the trend of character led dramas draped in genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No IP hangover. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance likely lifts another batch of grief laced elevated horror, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Legacy Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, led by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Trends to Watch

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival Hype Equals Market Leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

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

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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



The next chiller cycle: installments, standalone ideas, together with A busy Calendar calibrated for shocks

Dek The arriving horror calendar crams right away with a January logjam, following that runs through June and July, and deep into the holiday stretch, marrying marquee clout, new voices, and savvy counterweight. Major distributors and platforms are betting on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that position these offerings into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The genre has proven to be the predictable lever in studio calendars, a pillar that can break out when it catches and still mitigate the drawdown when it doesn’t. After 2023 reconfirmed for buyers that responsibly budgeted shockers can command audience talk, 2024 held pace with visionary-driven titles and under-the-radar smashes. The energy flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and arthouse crossovers showed there is room for many shades, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that travel well. The takeaway for 2026 is a slate that presents tight coordination across studios, with intentional bunching, a mix of legacy names and fresh ideas, and a reinvigorated commitment on theatrical windows that fuel later windows on premium digital rental and subscription services.

Marketers add the category now acts as a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can bow on a wide range of weekends, supply a quick sell for teasers and reels, and punch above weight with crowds that come out on first-look nights and maintain momentum through the sophomore frame if the title lands. Post a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows faith in that dynamic. The year commences with a loaded January window, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a fall corridor that carries into holiday-adjacent weekends and into the next week. The layout also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the timely point.

Another broad trend is IP stewardship across brand ecosystems and legacy franchises. Studio teams are not just rolling another installment. They are trying to present threaded continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a brandmark that announces a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that reconnects a new installment to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating hands-on technique, practical gags and specific settings. That blend delivers 2026 a solid mix of known notes and unexpected turns, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two centerpiece projects that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a succession moment and a back-to-basics character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the story approach indicates a fan-service aware strategy without rehashing the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Watch for a push anchored in classic imagery, first images of characters, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase large awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever owns horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated releases. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, somber, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date lines it up at the front of a heavy month, with the studio’s marketing likely to renew uncanny-valley stunts and quick hits that blurs love and foreboding.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a proper title to become an attention spike closer to the debut look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. His entries are treated as event films, with a minimalist tease and a follow-up trailer set that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček heads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, physical-effects centered method can feel big on a controlled budget. Look for a red-band summer horror rush that pushes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio deploys two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand in the market while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is positioning as a new foundation for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a directive to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot lets Sony to his comment is here build campaign pieces around environmental design, and creature effects, elements that can increase premium screens and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film builds on the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time focused on werewolf legend. Focus’s team has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a pacing that enhances both first-week urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video interleaves acquired titles with international acquisitions and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in archive usage, using curated hubs, seasonal hubs, and curated strips to maximize the tail on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about internal projects and festival buys, timing horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing go-lives with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of precision releases and swift platform pivots that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to take on select projects with name filmmakers or celebrity-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 corridor with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, modernized for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, guiding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then working the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has worked well 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 likely scenario is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception warrants. Anticipate 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 hand in hand, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The potential drawback, as ever, is brand erosion. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is bringing forward core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a continental coloration from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a known brand, the package is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Comparable trends from recent years outline the logic. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that observed windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror hit big in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they angle differently and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to bridge entries through character and theme and to continue assets in field without lulls.

How the films are being made

The creative meetings behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued shift toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is on track for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a initial teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for red-band excess, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and earns shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization and design, which favor booth activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel compelling. Look for trailers that elevate pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that land in premium houses.

Annual flow

January is stacked. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a tonal palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the mix of tones carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

February through May load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now can handle big openers. The 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a peekaboo tease plan and limited information drops that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, staging carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and holiday gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s intelligent companion escalates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy shifts and unease intensifies. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, founded on Cronin’s hands-on craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that frames the panic through a preteen’s flickering perspective. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: undetermined. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family bound to older hauntings. Rating: not yet rated. Production: aiming to lens in summer ahead of late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: pending. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-first horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: TBA. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: fidelity-minded reboot with crossover prospects.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: undetermined. Production: moving forward. 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 era-accurate language and elemental fear. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces organize this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, 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 Goldilocks zone. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, 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 stealth-hit search 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 work those windows. 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. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, 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 pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, audio design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, lock the reveals, and let the shudders sell the seats.