Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

A bone-chilling metaphysical suspense film from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primeval entity when strangers become conduits in a supernatural ordeal. Available on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing chronicle of staying alive and old world terror that will reshape fear-driven cinema this October. Directed by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this unpredictable and eerie thriller follows five teens who regain consciousness isolated in a wilderness-bound cabin under the ominous power of Kyra, a haunted figure overtaken by a biblical-era sacred-era entity. Steel yourself to be hooked by a screen-based ride that weaves together gut-punch terror with spiritual backstory, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a legendary fixture in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the spirits no longer develop from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This embodies the darkest side of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw spiritual tug-of-war where the suspense becomes a intense tug-of-war between divinity and wickedness.


In a unforgiving forest, five individuals find themselves contained under the dark grip and control of a haunted being. As the group becomes powerless to withstand her command, abandoned and followed by presences unimaginable, they are cornered to face their deepest fears while the clock unceasingly ticks toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust swells and associations dissolve, prompting each cast member to reconsider their existence and the notion of freedom of choice itself. The pressure amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that intertwines occult fear with soulful exposure.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to draw upon ancestral fear, an evil from prehistory, influencing mental cracks, and wrestling with a presence that forces self-examination when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra meant channeling something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that conversion is deeply unsettling because it is so emotional.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—ensuring horror lovers around the globe can get immersed in this chilling supernatural event.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new trailer two for *Young & Cursed*, debuted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original promo, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be offered to international markets, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Experience this mind-warping trip into the unknown. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to see these evil-rooted truths about our species.


For film updates, production insights, and announcements via the production team, follow @YACMovie across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s tipping point: 2025 U.S. release slate braids together Mythic Possession, microbudget gut-punches, plus tentpole growls

Beginning with endurance-driven terror rooted in primordial scripture to series comebacks together with focused festival visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most textured together with calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. studio majors lay down anchors by way of signature titles, even as streaming platforms pack the fall with first-wave breakthroughs alongside primordial unease. Meanwhile, the independent cohort is fueled by the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, but this year, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are targeted, so 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: High-craft horror returns

The top end is active. If 2024 set the base, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp kicks off the frame with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Under director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. set for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Led by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

Following that is The Black Phone 2. Originally slated for early summer, its move to an October release suggests confidence. Derrickson resumes command, and the tone that worked before is intact: retro dread, trauma driven plotting, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The next entry deepens the tale, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Plays: Low budgets, big teeth

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, streamers are pushing into risk, and dividends follow.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a two hander body horror spiral featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable starring Michael B. Jordan. Lensed in lush sepia and soaked in biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. First test passes flag it as highly discussable at debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each threads grief and absence and identity, mapping allegory to dread.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the night settles, her power spikes, an infiltrating force leveraging fears, breaks, and sorrow.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. That is a savvy move. No overstuffed canon. No continuity burden. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Next Chapters, New Starts, New Shapes

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it functions as a harsh dystopian fable encased in survival horror, a children’s march that ends in death. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Old myth goes broad
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror goes beyond fright, it notes evil’s age.

Body horror ascends again
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation, these are the new metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. SVOD players fund strong scripts, proven directors, and real spend. Pieces like Weapons and Sinners receive event status, not feed stock.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios hold theatrical for overperformers or future series seeds. Other titles pivot PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. Do not be surprised if one or two move to early 2026 or switch platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fright lineup: entries, non-franchise titles, paired with A busy Calendar engineered for frights

Dek: The arriving horror year lines up early with a January glut, then runs through the warm months, and deep into the December corridor, mixing legacy muscle, fresh ideas, and strategic counterplay. Major distributors and platforms are relying on right-sized spends, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that convert horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has established itself as the surest move in distribution calendars, a category that can grow when it catches and still insulate the drag when it misses. After 2023 signaled to leaders that responsibly budgeted scare machines can drive the discourse, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where re-entries and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for varied styles, from ongoing IP entries to fresh IP that export nicely. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that presents tight coordination across the field, with defined corridors, a mix of familiar brands and novel angles, and a reinvigorated priority on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Distribution heads claim the genre now slots in as a plug-and-play option on the calendar. The genre can debut on a wide range of weekends, supply a clear pitch for spots and short-form placements, and lead with fans that line up on preview nights and stay strong through the subsequent weekend if the feature pays off. Exiting a strike-affected pipeline, the 2026 plan signals faith in that dynamic. The year launches with a loaded January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while clearing room for a fall run that extends to All Hallows period and past Halloween. The layout also shows the tightening integration of indie distributors and SVOD players that can grow from platform, spark evangelism, and go nationwide at the sweet spot.

A reinforcing pattern is legacy care across interlocking continuities and storied titles. The studios are not just producing another follow-up. They are trying to present lore continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that conveys a recalibrated tone or a cast configuration that threads a fresh chapter to a heyday. At the parallel to that, the writer-directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are celebrating physical effects work, special makeup and place-driven backdrops. That alloy gives 2026 a vital pairing of brand comfort and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount defines the early cadence with two high-profile releases that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the heart, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-centered film. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a heritage-honoring campaign without covering again the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run stacked with iconic art, early character teases, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a selling point the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will go after large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick redirects to whatever shapes horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is simple, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man adopts an AI companion that shifts into a killer companion. The date places it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror strange in-person beats and brief clips that fuses companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing secures a slot in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are sold as signature events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that shape mood without giving away the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has consistently shown that a flesh-and-blood, physical-effects centered approach can feel prestige on a lean spend. Position this as a splatter summer horror surge that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio books two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, keeping a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch gestates. The studio has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what the studio is framing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and new audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can drive premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and historical speech, this time orbiting lycan myth. The distributor has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is favorable.

Platform lanes and windowing

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. The Universal horror run land on copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a stair-step that amplifies both FOMO and sign-up spikes in the after-window. Prime Video stitches together licensed films with world buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data recommends it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, holiday hubs, and handpicked rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix keeps optionality about Netflix films and festival wins, securing horror entries closer to launch and eventizing drops with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a staged of precision releases and speedy platforming that converts buzz to sign-ups. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a situational basis. The platform has indicated interest to pick up select projects with established auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clean: the same somber, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, recalibrated for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an optimistic indicator for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then relying on the December frame to move out. That positioning has proved effective for elevated genre with mainstream crossovers. 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 credible outlook is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception prompts. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Franchise entries versus originals

By count, the 2026 slate favors the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate cultural cachet. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The preferred tactic is to present each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-accented approach from a ascendant talent. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and director-first projects keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the configuration is recognizable enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night turnout.

The last three-year set announce the template. In 2023, a exclusive window model that maintained windows did not preclude a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was strong. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they alter lens and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot consecutively, builds a path for marketing to tie installments through character arcs and themes and to continue assets in field without pause points.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries indicate a continued move toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that foregrounds creep and texture rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-faithful dialogue, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and technical spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease 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 built for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that connects worldwide in red-band trailers and drives shareable scream clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta recalibration that re-centers the original lead. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature work and production design, which work nicely for fan conventions and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel compelling. Look for trailers that center fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that shine in top rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the tonal variety carves a lane for each, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Late winter and spring set up the summer. Scream 7 lands February 27 with legacy heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now supports 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 spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

Late summer into fall leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event claims October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that elevate concept over story.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has this page done this before, staging carefully, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to sustain conversation into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card spend.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting ongoing as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s artificial companion turns into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech thriller with grief spine.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse 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 collide with a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: atmospheric game 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 demanding boss try to survive on a remote island as the power balance of power tilts and paranoia builds. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-led survival piece from a genre icon.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting scenario that explores the dread of a child’s unreliable POV. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-built and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that targets in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime manias. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

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 erupts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new household caught in lingering terrors. Rating: pending. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: ongoing. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and bone-deep menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why this year, why now

Three hands-on forces inform this lineup. First, production that paused or shuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more rigorous 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 debuts. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage clippable moments from test screenings, metered scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, providing runway for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or position as the older-lean choice. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will stack across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can make hay in a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, with many far below. That allows for wide PLF deployment 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 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, 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 pattern and spread. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, soundscape, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open check over here in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Looks Exciting

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts evolve. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand power where it counts, fresh vision where it counts, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.