Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, bowing October 2025 on global platforms

One haunting ghostly horror tale from narrative craftsman / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless evil when foreigners become vehicles in a hellish ritual. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing saga of struggle and age-old darkness that will reimagine terror storytelling this harvest season. Crafted by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and cinematic fearfest follows five unknowns who regain consciousness imprisoned in a wooded shelter under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a central character controlled by a ancient biblical demon. Steel yourself to be hooked by a narrative adventure that combines primitive horror with biblical origins, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a iconic concept in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is inverted when the monsters no longer appear from beyond, but rather from within. This depicts the most sinister aspect of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat cognitive warzone where the story becomes a intense conflict between virtue and vice.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five characters find themselves contained under the unholy influence and domination of a mysterious entity. As the group becomes vulnerable to evade her influence, marooned and pursued by spirits indescribable, they are obligated to stand before their inner demons while the countdown harrowingly ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and teams shatter, requiring each individual to challenge their core and the idea of liberty itself. The tension accelerate with every fleeting time, delivering a paranormal ride that merges occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to evoke raw dread, an malevolence that existed before mankind, influencing fragile psyche, and questioning a entity that threatens selfhood when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something rooted in terror. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that flip is shocking because it is so deep.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for streaming beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing users everywhere can survive this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has attracted over strong viewer count.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, offering the tale to viewers around the world.


Do not miss this visceral fall into madness. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to confront these evil-rooted truths about the psyche.


For sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and alerts directly from production, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across media channels and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar Mixes Mythic Possession, underground frights, together with brand-name tremors

From survivor-centric dread drawn from near-Eastern lore and extending to canon extensions paired with keen independent perspectives, 2025 is shaping up as the richest in tandem with strategic year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. the big studios plant stakes across the year by way of signature titles, at the same time streamers pack the fall with new perspectives in concert with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the artisan tier is drafting behind the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, notably this year, horror is also claiming January, spring, and even mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, and 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium dread reemerges

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 amplifies the bet.

the Universal banner leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The transformation is not just physical, it is marital, parental, and painfully human. dated for mid January, it joins a broader aim to occupy winter’s quiet with elevated titles, not leftovers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

As summer wanes, the WB camp releases the last chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: 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. Despite a known recipe, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the tone that worked before is intact: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, paired with unsettling supernatural order. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, thickens the animatronic pantheon, while aiming for teen viewers and thirty something game loyalists. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it should ignite online discourse and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, an intimate body horror unraveling starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga with Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Several other streaming indies are quietly waiting in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Shaped and helmed 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 evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opener, draws comparisons to Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Series Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 bows late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, steered by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If packaged well, it could track like 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

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror returns
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

What’s Next: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The new scare cycle: follow-ups, non-franchise titles, together with A loaded Calendar designed for frights

Dek: The brand-new terror slate loads from the jump with a January cluster, thereafter unfolds through the warm months, and deep into the festive period, combining franchise firepower, inventive spins, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios with streamers are leaning into smart costs, theater-first strategies, and shareable marketing that frame these offerings into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The genre has solidified as the dependable swing in studio calendars, a category that can grow when it performs and still limit the exposure when it falls short. After 2023 reconfirmed for buyers that disciplined-budget shockers can steer the national conversation, the following year kept the drumbeat going with signature-voice projects and surprise hits. The trend moved into the 2025 frame, where reboots and festival-grade titles showed there is appetite for many shades, from returning installments to original features that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a run that presents tight coordination across companies, with planned clusters, a blend of legacy names and new concepts, and a renewed commitment on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and streaming.

Buyers contend the category now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, offer a clean hook for previews and short-form placements, and lead with audiences that lean in on opening previews and sustain through the second weekend if the offering satisfies. Following a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 rhythm reflects confidence in that setup. The year launches with a heavy January window, then primes spring and early summer for contrast, while keeping space for a September to October window that flows toward the Halloween frame and into the next week. The grid also highlights the stronger partnership of indie arms and digital platforms that can nurture a platform play, ignite recommendations, and widen at the optimal moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across linked properties and veteran brands. Distribution groups are not just mounting another next film. They are looking to package brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that flags a new vibe or a lead change that connects a new entry to a vintage era. At the alongside this, the creative leads behind the most watched originals are championing hands-on technique, special makeup and grounded locations. That combination delivers the 2026 slate a healthy mix of known notes and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount defines the early cadence with two headline bets that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a passing of the torch and a back-to-basics character-driven entry. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the narrative stance indicates a classic-referencing bent without repeating the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout anchored in legacy iconography, character previews, and a rollout cadence hitting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will drive mass reach through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick adjustments to whatever drives horror talk that spring.

Universal has three differentiated pushes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is efficient, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an intelligent companion that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s promo team likely to recreate off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that mixes love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the debut look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele titles are set up as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a next wave of trailers that signal tone without plot the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor opens a lane to maximize 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, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered method can feel deluxe on a lean spend. Frame it as a grime-caked summer horror blast that embraces offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio mounts two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, continuing a bankable supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and newcomers. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and monster aesthetics, elements that can drive large-format demand and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and historical speech, this time engaging werewolf myth. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

Streaming windows and tactics

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a stair-step that maximizes both premiere heat and sub growth in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves library titles with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in deep cuts, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to prolong the run on lifetime take. Netflix remains opportunistic about in-house releases and festival wins, dating horror entries with shorter lead times and making event-like rollouts with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a dual-phase of precision theatrical plays and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will prove important 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+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has proven amenable to acquire select projects with top-tier auteurs or celebrity-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 runway with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is clean: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then leveraging the holiday corridor to broaden. That positioning has shown results for elevated genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to firm up after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception allows. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their audience.

Series vs standalone

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to frame each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is underscoring core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment moves quickly.

Non-franchise titles and talent-first projects provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a sharp, spooky tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and first-night audiences.

Recent comps make sense of the strategy. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not preclude a hybrid test from working when the brand was sticky. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror surged in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they shift POV and raise the stakes. 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 twin-shoot approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character web and themes and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate hint at a continued preference for tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that spotlights unease and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has described Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and drives shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature execution and sets, which are ideal for convention activations and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel compelling. Look for trailers that emphasize surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar cadence

January is crowded. Universal’s 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 somber counterpoint amid headline IP. 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 credible, but the mix of tones makes lanes for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s 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 divides the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 offers no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rolled through premiums.

End of summer through fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a late-September window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks 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 bereaved man’s machine mate unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 severe boss push to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command turns and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: celebrity-led survival horror from a legend.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to menace, anchored by Cronin’s on-set craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 closed-door haunting setup that refracts terror through a kid’s unreliable personal vantage. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and toplined haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A comic send-up that lampoons present-day genre chatter and true crime fixations. Rating: TBA. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a different family snared by lingering terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A clean reboot designed to re-establish the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for true survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: closely held. Rating: pending. Production: active. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three pragmatic forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees great post to read fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Cost, ratings, and sleeper dynamics

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

The surprise-hit pursuit continues in Q1, where lower and mid-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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you maintain buzz and butts in seats without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to seed the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, soundcraft, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is name recognition where it counts, new vision where it lands, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, roll out exact trailers, lock the reveals, and let the fear sell the seats.