Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on global platforms

A chilling paranormal horror tale from cinematographer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric dread when passersby become subjects in a diabolical ritual. Available October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – ready yourself for *Young & Cursed*, a intense account of staying alive and forgotten curse that will transform fear-driven cinema this Halloween season. Visualized by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and gothic cinema piece follows five people who regain consciousness confined in a unreachable dwelling under the sinister rule of Kyra, a female presence dominated by a 2,000-year-old biblical demon. Arm yourself to be hooked by a narrative event that unites instinctive fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is flipped when the presences no longer develop externally, but rather from their psyche. This symbolizes the most hidden side of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mind game where the suspense becomes a unyielding contest between right and wrong.


In a isolated forest, five characters find themselves contained under the ghastly rule and grasp of a haunted being. As the team becomes unresisting to break her manipulation, marooned and preyed upon by presences unimaginable, they are compelled to encounter their raw vulnerabilities while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia escalates and associations crack, pressuring each figure to reflect on their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The intensity intensify with every heartbeat, delivering a horror experience that blends mystical fear with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to channel deep fear, an presence beyond recorded history, channeling itself through inner turmoil, and highlighting a darkness that strips down our being when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that metamorphosis is shocking because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing households anywhere can engage with this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a second look to its release of trailer #1, which has pulled in over 100,000 views.


In addition to its first availability, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, giving access to the movie to a global viewership.


Experience this bone-rattling descent into darkness. Join *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to survive these haunting secrets about existence.


For previews, production news, and insider scoops straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursed across online outlets and visit youngandcursed.com.





Contemporary horror’s major pivot: 2025 domestic schedule Mixes old-world possession, microbudget gut-punches, in parallel with returning-series thunder

Kicking off with life-or-death fear drawn from legendary theology and stretching into legacy revivals set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 is lining up as the richest and calculated campaign year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors stabilize the year by way of signature titles, simultaneously platform operators flood the fall with unboxed visions as well as legend-coded dread. On the festival side, the artisan tier is riding the echoes of a record-setting 2024 festival season. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and in 2025, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm starts the year with an audacious swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. targeting mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

In spring, Clown in a Cornfield lands, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Steered by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer winds down, 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 installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Next is The Black Phone 2. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The continuation widens the legend, broadens the animatronic terror cast, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streaming Offerings: Low budgets, big teeth

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

On the quieter side is Together, a room scale body horror descent with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a 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 taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, angle the film as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel load and monster re ups. That is a savvy move. No overweight mythology. No canon weight. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

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 this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen hits July to revive the 90s line with fresh lead and VHS vibe. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forecast: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The approaching fright calendar year ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, and also A stacked Calendar designed for jolts

Dek The arriving terror cycle builds right away with a January wave, subsequently stretches through summer, and carrying into the winter holidays, marrying brand equity, untold stories, and savvy release strategy. Studio marketers and platforms are leaning into tight budgets, theatrical-first rollouts, and short-form initiatives that shape genre titles into cross-demo moments.

How the genre looks for 2026

This space has become the steady tool in distribution calendars, a pillar that can surge when it clicks and still buffer the risk when it does not. After the 2023 year demonstrated to top brass that low-to-mid budget horror vehicles can steer audience talk, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with buzzy auteur projects and sleeper breakouts. The energy rolled into the 2025 frame, where revived properties and critical darlings proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from legacy continuations to original features that export nicely. The end result for 2026 is a grid that reads highly synchronized across players, with defined corridors, a harmony of recognizable IP and new packages, and a renewed focus on box-office windows that enhance post-theatrical value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the rollout map. The genre can kick off on open real estate, deliver a easy sell for promo reels and TikTok spots, and over-index with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday previews and stick through the next weekend if the feature fires. Exiting a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 plan indicates assurance in that dynamic. The year opens with a front-loaded January run, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while keeping space for a fall cadence that extends to the Halloween frame and into the next week. The program also illustrates the ongoing integration of indie arms and subscription services that can platform and widen, build word of mouth, and broaden at the precise moment.

A second macro trend is IP stewardship across ongoing universes and storied titles. The studios are not just greenlighting another entry. They are shaping as threaded continuity with a occasion, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a re-angled tone or a star attachment that anchors a new installment to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing physical effects work, in-camera effects and grounded locations. That interplay hands 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two spotlight bets that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the core, angling it as both a handoff and a classic-mode relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward approach without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run anchored in classic imagery, early character teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will lean on. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will seek large awareness through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format making room for quick switches to whatever owns the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three clear strategies. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, soulful, and commercial: a grieving man purchases an virtual partner that unfolds into a murderous partner. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror off-kilter promo beats and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. His entries are sold as director events, with a opaque teaser and a subsequent trailers that tee up tone without spoiling the concept. The late-month date creates space for Universal to command this page pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning style can feel high-value on a controlled budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio places two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, maintaining a bankable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what the studio is selling as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot affords Sony time to build promo materials around lore, and monster craft, elements that can stoke premium screens and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror shaped by historical precision and language, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus Features has already locked the day for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is supportive.

Streaming windows and tactics

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate land on copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ordering that amplifies both debut momentum and subscription bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video will mix library titles with cross-border buys and qualifying theatrical engagements when the data signals it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in catalog engagement, using timely promos, genre hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on lifetime take. Netflix stays opportunistic about originals and festival deals, finalizing horror entries near their drops and eventizing debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a paired of selective theatrical runs and prompt platform moves that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to board select projects with prestige directors or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a notable driver for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation surges.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, retooled for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the autumn weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then pressing the year-end corridor to scale. That positioning has helped for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Do not be surprised by 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 tandem, using select theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their membership.

IP versus fresh ideas

By proportion, 2026 tips toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness cultural cachet. The watch-out, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a restart at zero for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a French sensibility from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Originals and director-driven titles bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, features Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is assuring enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Comparable trends from recent years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theater-first model that preserved streaming windows did not block a same-day experiment from paying off when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they change perspective and grow scope. 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 double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, gives leeway to marketing to interlace chapters through character arcs and themes and to hold creative in the market without pause points.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this year’s genre suggest a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that elevates texture and dread rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and craft coverage before rolling out a tease that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off 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 lands overseas in red-band trailers and sparks shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta reframe that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which align with fan conventions and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel compelling. Look for trailers that highlight razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that explode in larger rooms.

Annual flow

January is full. 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 foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Pre-summer months seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is jokier and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that trade in concept over detail.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A loss-struck man’s synthetic partner becomes something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control dynamic flips and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to terror, driven by Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. 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 household haunting setup that manipulates the chill of a child’s unreliable impressions. Rating: rating pending. Production: post-ready. 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 parody return that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: director-branded event with teaser focus.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and elemental dread. Rating: TBA. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. 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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces inform this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or reshuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often rely on fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter timelines. 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming placements. Third, digital word of mouth converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, managed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

Calendar math also matters. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can ride the first-half wave of animated and action tentpoles, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lean-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 left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, aural design, and picture 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

Slots move. Ratings change. Casts adjust. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of 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 eleventh-hour specialty buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.