Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 across leading streamers

One haunting supernatural suspense film from writer / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an prehistoric nightmare when passersby become puppets in a fiendish maze. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of overcoming and prehistoric entity that will redefine the fear genre this scare season. Produced by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and eerie screenplay follows five strangers who wake up ensnared in a far-off cottage under the aggressive will of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a 2,000-year-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be hooked by a cinematic venture that integrates deep-seated panic with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a historical trope in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is challenged when the fiends no longer develop outside the characters, but rather through their own souls. This marks the most sinister side of the protagonists. The result is a emotionally raw moral showdown where the story becomes a brutal battle between righteousness and malevolence.


In a desolate landscape, five souls find themselves trapped under the malevolent dominion and overtake of a elusive figure. As the ensemble becomes paralyzed to escape her will, severed and hunted by beings unfathomable, they are made to endure their darkest emotions while the countdown ruthlessly counts down toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia swells and alliances dissolve, driving each protagonist to examine their core and the concept of free will itself. The cost mount with every second, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that merges demonic fright with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to awaken basic terror, an curse from prehistory, embedding itself in our fears, and testing a power that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra involved tapping into something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the entity awakens, and that transformation is haunting because it is so raw.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be accessible for audiences beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that horror lovers worldwide can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its original clip, which has racked up over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Be sure to catch this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to dive into these chilling revelations about human nature.


For bonus footage, production news, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s major pivot: 2025 U.S. lineup fuses legend-infused possession, independent shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with legendary theology as well as installment follow-ups set beside focused festival visions, 2025 looks like the most variegated paired with carefully orchestrated year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors bookend the months with familiar IP, in parallel digital services pack the fall with new voices together with mythic dread. On another front, independent banners is catching the uplift from a record 2024 festival run. With Halloween holding the peak, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, and in 2025, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are precise, and 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 prepared the terrain, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate kicks off the frame with a marquee bet: a refreshed Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, inside today’s landscape. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it plays as blood lacquered Americana with satire under the paint. Under the costume, it needles small town fear, cross generational rifts, and crowd punishment. Early reactions hint at fangs.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. delivers the closing chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the formula is familiar, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re teams, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: retrograde shiver, trauma foregrounded, paired with unsettling supernatural order. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, grows the animatronic horror lineup, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It opens in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold case horror anthology stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this story returns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

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. It is a clever angle. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

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 bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen brings back the 90s line in July with a new lead and throwback vibe. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Emerging Currents

Old myth goes broad
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, creators turn to ancient texts and symbols. Not nostalgia, a reclaim of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Badges are functional, they buy theatrical access, prime placement, and cycles. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The coming 2026 spook cycle: continuations, non-franchise titles, together with A brimming Calendar geared toward goosebumps

Dek: The emerging scare slate loads from day one with a January cluster, thereafter spreads through June and July, and pushing into the holiday frame, mixing franchise firepower, untold stories, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Studios with streamers are leaning into tight budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-driven marketing that convert these films into mainstream chatter.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in programming grids, a space that can expand when it resonates and still cushion the risk when it stumbles. After 2023 reassured greenlighters that low-to-mid budget chillers can own social chatter, 2024 continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where revivals and critical darlings signaled there is room for several lanes, from returning installments to filmmaker-driven originals that resonate abroad. The sum for 2026 is a schedule that is strikingly coherent across the field, with clear date clusters, a balance of marquee IP and fresh ideas, and a revived attention on big-screen windows that amplify PVOD and streaming on premium video on demand and platforms.

Executives say the category now operates like a plug-and-play option on the distribution slate. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, supply a simple premise for ad units and shorts, and outperform with fans that arrive on Thursday previews and return through the sophomore frame if the release pays off. Following a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout exhibits confidence in that model. The calendar launches with a loaded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a fall cadence that connects to late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the expanded integration of specialized imprints and streaming partners that can platform a title, build word of mouth, and grow at the sweet spot.

A second macro trend is brand strategy across shared IP webs and heritage properties. The companies are not just making another entry. They are seeking to position continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a graphic identity that broadcasts a fresh attitude or a casting move that anchors a next film to a foundational era. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating practical craft, in-camera effects and place-driven backdrops. That convergence offers 2026 a robust balance of assurance and newness, which is a recipe that travels worldwide.

The studios and mini-majors, and how they are playing the year

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 position and Neve Campbell back at the core, framing it as both a relay and a back-to-basics character study. Production is active in Atlanta, and the artistic posture points to a classic-referencing angle without recycling the last two entries’ family thread. Count on a promo wave built on franchise iconography, initial cast looks, and a rollout cadence arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will foreground. As a summer counter-slot, this one will build broad awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format inviting quick switches to whatever rules trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is elegant, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an artificial companion that evolves into a killer companion. The date nudges it to the front of a front-loaded month, with the Universal machine likely to replay viral uncanny stunts and quick hits that fuses attachment and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which makes room for a title reveal to become an PR pop closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are set up as filmmaker events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The Halloween runway opens a lane to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has demonstrated that a visceral, on-set effects led execution can feel big on a efficient spend. Frame it as a blood-and-grime summer horror rush that leans hard into international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio places two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a evergreen supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch advances. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil comes back in what Sony is positioning as a reset 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 sharper mandate to serve both loyalists and casuals. The fall slot offers Sony space to build materials around mythos, and monster aesthetics, elements that can fuel premium screens and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The specialty arm has already locked the day for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is glowing.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a cadence that maximizes both first-week urgency and subscription bumps in the back half. Prime Video stitches together third-party pickups with global originals and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, fright rows, and programmed rows to increase tail value on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix retains agility about first-party entries and festival deals, locking in horror entries near their drops and turning into events go-lives with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, exploits a tiered of precision theatrical plays and prompt platform moves that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before turning to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a discrete basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to board select projects with accomplished filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to gain imprimatur before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for monthly engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 runway with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, retooled for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is have a peek at these guys expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has signaled a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, curating the rollout through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Do not be surprised by 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 in tandem, using targeted theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their membership.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate tilts in favor of the recognizable IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The pragmatic answer is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a European tilt from a emerging director. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the assembly is comforting enough to build pre-sales and Thursday-night turnout.

Comps from the last three years help explain the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror surged in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, lets marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to sustain campaign assets without long gaps.

How the films are being made

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the year’s horror foreshadow a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers creep and texture rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the darkest project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a chilly, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a first look that leans on mood over plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is aimed at red-band excess, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and gathers shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a self-referential reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will live or die on monster work and world-building, which lend themselves to fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel must-have. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that shine in top rooms.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. 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 moody palate cleanser amid bigger brand plays. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sticks.

Late winter and spring tee up summer. Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer clarifies the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a pre-October slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event takes October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited pre-release reveals that favor idea over plot.

December specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can add screens in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card burn.

Title snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative relinks to the original film’s genes. 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 algorithmic partner unfolds into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: aura-driven 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 unyielding boss push to survive on a isolated island as the hierarchy tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to menace, driven by Cronin’s physical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting story that toys with the terror of a child’s unreliable perceptions. Rating: forthcoming. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that skewers in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: broad summer counterprogrammer.

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 ignites, with an see here worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: ferocious R chapter primed for premium screens.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a another family tethered to older hauntings. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: pending. Logline: A clean reboot designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward true survival horror over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: undetermined. Production: active. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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

Why 2026 lands now

Three operational forces organize this lineup. First, production that eased or shuffled in 2024 required runway on the datebook. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter 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 generated more than straight-to-streaming drops. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate repeatable beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, making room for genre entries that can command a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the efficient band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 breakout hunt 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 maximize 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. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience rhythm across the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. 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 gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, 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 trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Schedules slip. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is franchise muscle where it helps, creative ambition where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the chills sell the seats.