Ancient Darkness Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled horror feature, launching October 2025 on major platforms

A bone-chilling ghostly scare-fest from creator / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten evil when unrelated individuals become puppets in a cursed struggle. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish saga of continuance and timeless dread that will revamp terror storytelling this autumn. Created by rising new wave horror talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and moody film follows five unacquainted souls who awaken trapped in a off-grid cabin under the malignant grip of Kyra, a troubled woman consumed by a prehistoric ancient fiend. Be warned to be gripped by a audio-visual spectacle that fuses bodily fright with arcane tradition, dropping on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring trope in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is reimagined when the malevolences no longer originate beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This embodies the most primal version of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal internal warfare where the tension becomes a constant push-pull between purity and corruption.


In a remote terrain, five characters find themselves contained under the evil rule and infestation of a unidentified female figure. As the companions becomes unable to oppose her rule, detached and targeted by spirits mind-shattering, they are made to deal with their inner demons while the final hour unceasingly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease swells and relationships splinter, coercing each protagonist to doubt their being and the idea of conscious will itself. The hazard accelerate with every second, delivering a fear-soaked story that connects supernatural terror with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to tap into pure dread, an presence older than civilization itself, manifesting in human fragility, and testing a will that redefines identity when freedom is gone.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra called for internalizing something more primal than sorrow. She is unaware until the entity awakens, and that transition is gut-wrenching because it is so private.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure viewers around the globe can watch this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, available to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its original clip, which has collected over six-figure audience.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, offering the tale to fans of fear everywhere.


Be sure to catch this unforgettable path of possession. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to acknowledge these nightmarish insights about mankind.


For director insights, extra content, and announcements from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit the film’s website.





American horror’s major pivot: 2025 across markets U.S. rollouts weaves myth-forward possession, indie terrors, set against IP aftershocks

From pressure-cooker survival tales rooted in scriptural legend all the way to installment follow-ups as well as focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with tactically planned year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio powerhouses hold down the year via recognizable brands, concurrently OTT services flood the fall with new perspectives in concert with archetypal fear. In the indie lane, independent banners is riding the afterglow from a record 2024 festival run. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, accordingly 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Strategies: High-craft horror returns

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal opens the year with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, in a modern-day environment. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher translation rendered as pared-down fear. Eli Craig directs featuring turns by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule rolls out the capstone of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is guiding toward a solemn, meditative finish. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma centered writing, along with eerie supernatural rules. This run ups the stakes, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, broadens the animatronic terror cast, courting teens and the thirty something base. It bows in December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a close quarters body horror study pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, 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 threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No bloated canon. No legacy baggage. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festivals as Springboards

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, under Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Trends Worth Watching

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamers grow fangs
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

The combination of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons across September and October saturates fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The upcoming chiller release year: returning titles, new stories, And A hectic Calendar geared toward jolts

Dek The brand-new scare slate lines up up front with a January pile-up, subsequently flows through summer, and straight through the holidays, fusing legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and well-timed calendar placement. Studio marketers and platforms are focusing on lean spends, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that shape these films into national conversation.

The landscape of horror in 2026

This space has proven to be the bankable tool in studio calendars, a space that can accelerate when it connects and still limit the liability when it underperforms. After 2023 reconfirmed for greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The carry fed into 2025, where legacy revivals and critical darlings proved there is appetite for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a slate that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of marquee IP and original hooks, and a recommitted emphasis on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and home platforms.

Insiders argue the space now behaves like a versatile piece on the grid. The genre can debut on virtually any date, yield a easy sell for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and outpace with moviegoers that appear on advance nights and maintain momentum through the follow-up frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that dynamic. The year starts with a busy January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while holding room for a fall cadence that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The grid also features the greater integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and move wide at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand strategy across shared IP webs and storied titles. Studios are not just mounting another continuation. They are setting up threaded continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a art treatment that telegraphs a new tone or a ensemble decision that ties a next film to a first wave. At the very same time, the creative leads behind the most anticipated originals are returning to material texture, real effects and location-forward worlds. That convergence provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and invention, which is how the films export.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two big-ticket releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, steering it as both a succession moment and a classic-mode character-focused installment. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the narrative stance suggests a nostalgia-forward framework without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. Watch for a push centered on signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format supporting quick adjustments to whatever tops the discourse that spring.

Universal has three defined strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that mutates into a murderous partner. The date slots it at the front of a stacked January, with Universal’s marketing likely to mirror odd public stunts and short-cut promos that hybridizes romance and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title reveal to become an headline beat closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Filling out 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 framed as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second beat that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date gives Universal room to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where this contact form available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning strategy can feel top-tier on a efficient spend. Frame it as a red-band summer horror blast that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, carrying a reliable supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach 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 fans and novices. The fall slot offers Sony space to build promo materials around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can amplify PLF interest and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes 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 grounded in immersive craft and dialect, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

How the platforms plan to play it

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal titles shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a cadence that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the later window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with international acquisitions and select theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and collection rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix plays opportunist about in-house releases and festival buys, dating horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops premieres with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a dual-phase of targeted theatrical exposure and prompt platform moves that translates talk to trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers 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 domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation heats up.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same foggy, 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 fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a traditional cinema play for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the Christmas corridor to widen. That positioning has worked well for director-led 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 regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception merits. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their audience.

Legacy titles versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The question, as ever, is brand erosion. The workable fix is to brand each entry as a recalibration. Paramount is underscoring character and heritage in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-flavored turn from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-first projects bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is known enough to build pre-sales and Thursday previews.

The last three-year set make sense of the approach. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that preserved streaming windows did not obstruct a day-date try from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror over-performed in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reorient and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, allows marketing to connect the chapters through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without long gaps.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 entries foreshadow a continued shift toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for sonic immersion and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in deep-dive features and artisan spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that keeps plot minimal, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which lend themselves to expo activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight precise sound design, 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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a moody palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Late Q1 and spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting rolling out as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner shifts into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and oozing dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting story that plays with the terror of a child’s mercurial perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: post-ready. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural mood piece.

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 satire sequel that pokes at contemporary horror memes and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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: TBA. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a fresh family anchored to past horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on era-accurate language and raw menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three operational forces frame this lineup. First, production that slowed or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and compressed schedules. Second, studios have become more structured 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 releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Calendar math also matters. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, clearing runway for genre entries that can control a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can pounce on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 sleeper-hit hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first unexpected breakout 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.

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes for the throat, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing surface detail, sound, and visuals 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, Lined Up To Scare

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.