Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed revives primeval horror, a pulse pounding shocker, premiering Oct 2025 on leading streamers

A bone-chilling metaphysical fear-driven tale from literary architect / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric dread when passersby become victims in a satanic ceremony. Launching October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will redefine scare flicks this autumn. Created by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and tone-heavy feature follows five individuals who come to stranded in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the sinister manipulation of Kyra, a cursed figure consumed by a timeless Old Testament spirit. Prepare to be ensnared by a cinematic spectacle that merges bodily fright with ancient myths, dropping on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a long-standing fixture in film. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is inverted when the presences no longer emerge from a different plane, but rather inside them. This mirrors the malevolent corner of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the intensity becomes a merciless confrontation between light and darkness.


In a barren terrain, five youths find themselves isolated under the fiendish rule and spiritual invasion of a mysterious female presence. As the cast becomes defenseless to oppose her power, stranded and attacked by presences indescribable, they are confronted to acknowledge their greatest panics while the countdown without pity moves toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia builds and friendships shatter, urging each cast member to reconsider their true nature and the philosophy of liberty itself. The stakes intensify with every minute, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together otherworldly suspense with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to evoke basic terror, an force that existed before mankind, embedding itself in fragile psyche, and wrestling with a force that challenges autonomy when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra asked for exploring something rooted in terror. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that shift is haunting because it is so unshielded.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for digital release beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—allowing viewers from coast to coast can witness this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a additional glimpse to its intro video, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this haunted descent into darkness. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to uncover these unholy truths about the soul.


For exclusive trailers, director cuts, and social posts from inside the story, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





American horror’s inflection point: the 2025 season domestic schedule melds archetypal-possession themes, Indie Shockers, in parallel with Franchise Rumbles

Kicking off with life-or-death fear suffused with primordial scripture and stretching into franchise returns as well as focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex along with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. leading studios hold down the year by way of signature titles, at the same time platform operators prime the fall with new perspectives and ancient terrors. Across the art-house lane, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is surfing the uplift of 2024’s record festival wave. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are targeted, so 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal fires the first shot with a marquee bet: a modernized Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, in an immediate now. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed for mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Steered by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. releases the last chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. While the template is known, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: retro dread, trauma in the foreground, plus otherworld rules that chill. This run ups the stakes, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Finishing the tentpole list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, grows the animatronic horror lineup, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the arc observes love and green eyed envy and self harm turned somatic. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

In the mix sits Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No series drag. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight offerings such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You surge on execution beyond the hook. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre set plays urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, and aims to widen its techno horror mythology with new characters and AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, steered by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Across the board, reboots and sequels such as Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda fill gaps, most looking for tactical dates or fast pickups.

Trend Lines

Mythic dread mainstreams
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios are only releasing horror theatrically if they believe it will overperform or spin into sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

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 plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The 2026 scare release year: next chapters, filmmaker-first projects, and also A stacked Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The arriving horror calendar clusters right away with a January cluster, then flows through the warm months, and far into the holidays, weaving IP strength, fresh ideas, and calculated offsets. Major distributors and platforms are relying on lean spends, box-office-first windows, and platform-native promos that frame genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has turned into the consistent option in release strategies, a genre that can expand when it connects and still hedge the exposure when it misses. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that mid-range shockers can lead the national conversation, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and surprise hits. The momentum translated to 2025, where re-entries and premium-leaning entries showed there is a lane for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to director-led originals that play globally. The upshot for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the market, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of known properties and fresh ideas, and a revived eye on box-office windows that power the aftermarket on premium on-demand and subscription services.

Distribution heads claim the genre now performs as a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can arrive on most weekends, supply a clean hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and lead with moviegoers that appear on Thursday nights and continue through the week two if the entry delivers. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan shows belief in that engine. The slate starts with a busy January lineup, then exploits spring through early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a autumn push that connects to the Halloween frame and into early November. The grid also includes the tightening integration of boutique distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and move wide at the strategic time.

A further high-level trend is franchise tending across connected story worlds and legacy IP. Big banners are not just producing another sequel. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that telegraphs a new vibe or a casting pivot that binds a next film to a initial period. At the parallel to that, the helmers behind the most buzzed-about originals are favoring on-set craft, makeup and prosthetics and site-specific worlds. That interplay hands 2026 a strong blend of recognition and shock, which is why the genre exports well.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two marquee moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the focus, positioning the film as both a cross-generational handoff and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a classic-referencing mode without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave centered on classic imagery, character-first teases, and a two-beat trailer plan hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will feature. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will build mainstream recognition through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick switches to whatever defines pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated lanes. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an digital partner that escalates into a deadly partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to renew strange in-person beats and short-form creative that mixes longing and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first look. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Rounding out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are branded as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor offers Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where 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 guides, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has established that a gritty, makeup-driven execution can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a gore-forward summer horror surge that pushes international play, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two marquee IP entries in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch gestates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both franchise faithful and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around environmental design, and monster craft, elements that can lift IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on meticulous craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The imprint has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a strong signal in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. The studio’s horror films feed copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a stair-step that expands both launch urgency and viewer acquisition in the post-theatrical. Prime Video stitches together licensed titles with world buys and select theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in deep cuts, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival snaps, securing horror entries on shorter runways and coalescing around drops with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and swift platform pivots that monetizes buzz via trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has proven amenable to pick up select projects with acclaimed directors or star-driven packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for platform stickiness when the genre conversation spikes.

Specialty and indie breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 slate with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the hard-edged series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, guiding the film through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has shown results for arthouse horror with four-quadrant hopes. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception prompts. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using targeted theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By weight, 2026 favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all capitalize on fan equity. The caveat, as ever, is brand wear. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-led entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a simple, unsettling tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is anchored enough to drive advance ticketing and Thursday-night turnout.

Three-year comps clarify the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that observed windows did not foreclose a day-and-date experiment from delivering when the brand was sticky. In 2024, director-craft horror popped in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they rotate perspective 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, builds a path for marketing to link the films through cast and motif and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries telegraph a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores tone and tension rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has talked about Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for textured sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in feature stories and guild coverage before rolling out a mood teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is set up for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and produces shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta refresh that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on monster realization and design, which match well with con floor moments and managed asset releases. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel primary. Look for trailers that spotlight surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

Month-by-month map

January is packed. 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 brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is legit, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth endures.

Q1 into Q2 set up the summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can win next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event holds October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a slow-reveal plan and limited teasers that center concept over reveals.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative reconnects to the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s machine mate mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: mood-led 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 abrasive boss struggle to survive on a far-flung island as the hierarchy reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, driven by Cronin’s hands-on craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. 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 closed-door haunting scenario that refracts terror through a kid’s shifting subjective lens. Rating: forthcoming. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-grade and star-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography set for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBD. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further extends again, with a different family anchored to ancient dread. Rating: undetermined. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in true survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: to be announced. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. 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 antique diction and ancient menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: window fluid, autumn forecast.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three operational forces structure this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or shuffled in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more orderly 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 debuts. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will compete across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where disciplined-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 quiet 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. 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.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, 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 turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a shadowed, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to prep the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, tight deployments, 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 grain, acoustics, 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, Ready To Roar

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is name recognition where it counts, 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, preserve the surprise, and let the fear sell More about the author the seats.