Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites mythic darkness, a nightmare fueled thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on global platforms

An eerie spiritual fear-driven tale from storyteller / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an prehistoric nightmare when strangers become instruments in a hellish game. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango’s digital service.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a intense narrative of perseverance and age-old darkness that will reshape scare flicks this autumn. Helmed by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and atmospheric thriller follows five unacquainted souls who awaken isolated in a unreachable shack under the malevolent power of Kyra, a young woman occupied by a biblical-era biblical demon. Anticipate to be shaken by a immersive ride that fuses primitive horror with mystical narratives, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a well-established concept in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is reversed when the fiends no longer emerge outside the characters, but rather internally. This symbolizes the shadowy part of these individuals. The result is a harrowing cognitive warzone where the drama becomes a merciless clash between light and darkness.


In a forsaken outland, five teens find themselves imprisoned under the fiendish influence and overtake of a haunted figure. As the team becomes unable to break her curse, stranded and followed by spirits unimaginable, they are obligated to stand before their worst nightmares while the final hour relentlessly draws closer toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust escalates and relationships shatter, pressuring each survivor to evaluate their existence and the integrity of liberty itself. The risk mount with every beat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that weaves together spiritual fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to awaken raw dread, an darkness that existed before mankind, manipulating mental cracks, and exposing a power that strips down our being when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something more primal than sorrow. She is innocent until the control shifts, and that conversion is gut-wrenching because it is so intimate.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—so that households no matter where they are can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its first preview, which has received over six-figure audience.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, exporting the fear to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this gripping ride through nightmares. Experience *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to explore these unholy truths about the mind.


For director insights, special features, and reveals straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across social media and visit our horror hub.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: 2025 for genre fans stateside slate Mixes primeval-possession lore, independent shockers, plus series shake-ups

Across survival horror saturated with mythic scripture and including returning series and focused festival visions, 2025 is tracking to be the genre’s most multifaceted paired with deliberate year since the mid-2010s.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors hold down the year with familiar IP, in parallel streaming platforms saturate the fall with new perspectives in concert with scriptural shivers. On the festival side, the independent cohort is catching the kinetic energy from a record 2024 festival run. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are exacting, thus 2025 could register as the most purpose-built year yet.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The studio class is engaged. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s schedule kicks off the frame with a confident swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. targeting mid January, it supports the push to convert the winter lull using prestige plays, not leftovers.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline sets loose the finale from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the outline is tried, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson re boards, and those signature textures resurface: throwback unease, trauma explicitly handled, plus otherworld rules that chill. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, pinning the winter close.

Streaming Originals: No Budget, No Problem

As theatricals lean on brands and continuations, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it evokes There Will Be Blood crossed with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed positions itself as a rare hybrid, intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No overweight mythology. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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 hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. The laurel is campaign ignition, not epilogue.

Series Horror: Additions, Do Overs, and Revisions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Versus earlier beats, it favors 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 first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Key Trends

Myth turns mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror retakes ground
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The filler era wanes for platform horror. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: follow-ups, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A brimming Calendar designed for nightmares

Dek: The emerging terror slate stacks in short order with a January pile-up, subsequently stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, balancing brand equity, untold stories, and calculated release strategy. Studios with streamers are betting on tight budgets, big-screen-first runs, and influencer-ready assets that shape these pictures into broad-appeal conversations.

Where horror stands going into 2026

This space has established itself as the dependable lever in distribution calendars, a corner that can spike when it hits and still safeguard the risk when it stumbles. After the 2023 year reminded decision-makers that efficiently budgeted pictures can galvanize cultural conversation, the following year carried the beat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The energy moved into 2025, where resurrections and arthouse crossovers made clear there is an opening for multiple flavors, from series extensions to director-led originals that scale internationally. The end result for the 2026 slate is a grid that seems notably aligned across studios, with planned clusters, a pairing of familiar brands and untested plays, and a revived commitment on cinema windows that fuel later windows on premium digital and streaming.

Insiders argue the horror lane now performs as a versatile piece on the schedule. Horror can debut on virtually any date, supply a clear pitch for promo reels and short-form placements, and punch above weight with patrons that come out on advance nights and continue through the follow-up frame if the entry delivers. In the wake of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence shows trust in that playbook. The calendar begins with a loaded January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while clearing room for a September to October window that connects to spooky season and beyond. The map also shows the increasing integration of specialized labels and SVOD players that can build gradually, stoke social talk, and expand at the strategic time.

An added macro current is brand curation across interlocking continuities and heritage properties. Studios are not just pushing another continuation. They are working to present threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a new tone or a ensemble decision that bridges a next film to a foundational era. At the simultaneously, the helmers behind the most watched originals are returning to material texture, real effects and site-specific worlds. That mix produces 2026 a confident blend of assurance and invention, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate releases that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the front, framing it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a throwback-friendly angle without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. The studio is likely to mount a drive driven by signature symbols, initial cast looks, and a staggered trailer plan rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also dusts off 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will double down on. As a counterweight in summer, this one will chase general-audience talk through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three distinct releases. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man installs an machine companion that unfolds into a dangerous lover. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to renew eerie street stunts and snackable content that melds intimacy and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The listed schedule currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the initial tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s releases are branded as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has shown that a tactile, physical-effects centered strategy can feel cinematic on a disciplined budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror blast that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, extending a bankable supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. The studio has moved dates 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 reappears in what Sony is marketing as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both core fans and novices. The fall slot affords Sony time to build campaign creative around world-building, and creature design, elements that can increase PLF interest and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film continues the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus’s team has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform plans for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that optimizes both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video continues to mix licensed films with worldwide buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu work their advantages in library engagement, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and handpicked rows to prolong the run on the horror cume. Netflix remains opportunistic about original films and festival buys, confirming horror entries on shorter runways and positioning as event drops rollouts with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that translates talk to trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a selective basis. The platform has shown a willingness to acquire select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to spark social click to read more proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 arc with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same moody, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, refined for modern mix and grade. 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 telegraphed a standard theatrical run for the title, an good sign for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the October weeks.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then working the holiday dates to open out. That positioning has delivered for craft-driven horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception drives. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using select theatrical to ignite evangelism that fuels their membership.

Franchise entries versus originals

By proportion, the 2026 slate skews toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all tap marquee value. The risk, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to frame each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is leading with character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a buzzed-about director. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the assembly is grounded enough to build pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Recent-year comps announce the plan. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-first auteur horror surged in large-format rooms. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and increase ambition. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by More about the author Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to tie installments through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind these films point to a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not play like any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is lined up for its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that centers unease and texture rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership bolstering efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has weblink tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft features before rolling out a tone piece that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will live or die on creature work and production design, which match well with convention activations and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel key. Look for trailers that emphasize pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that shine in top rooms.

Annual flow

January is loaded. Universal’s 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 gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 tone spread gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth stays strong.

Pre-summer months load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once suited genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows 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-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

Late summer into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil follows September 18, a transitional slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited information drops that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, deliberate rollout, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift card usage.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits 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 bereaved man’s AI companion turns into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting 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 difficult boss push to survive on a lonely island as the hierarchy flips and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

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 horror, grounded in Cronin’s material craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A residential haunting setup that toys with the fear of a child’s mercurial perspective. Rating: TBD. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-scale and marquee-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that teases current genre trends and true crime fixations. Rating: TBD. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 flares, with an worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further opens again, with a different family entangled with older hauntings. Rating: pending. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival horror over action spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: moving through development on a locked slot. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: undetermined. Production: advancing. Positioning: filmmaker-led event with teaser rollout.

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-faithful speech and primordial menace. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026 and why now

Three grounded forces structure this lineup. First, production that decelerated or migrated in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming landings. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify turnkey scare beats from test screenings, precision scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

A fourth factor is programming math. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, clearing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which keeps buzz lanes tidy. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for aggressive PLF bookings 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where lower and mid-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to harvest those lanes. 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. Look for a strong PVOD phase overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a tasting table, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can stack through the year, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient placements, 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, soundcraft, and framing 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the gasps sell the seats.