Mythic Terror Reawakens within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a fear soaked supernatural thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

A blood-curdling supernatural shockfest from storyteller / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an prehistoric horror when passersby become tokens in a malevolent trial. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google’s Play platform, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango at Home.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing depiction of living through and ancient evil that will revolutionize the fear genre this October. Produced by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and tone-heavy film follows five teens who snap to caught in a far-off cottage under the unfriendly power of Kyra, a troubled woman overtaken by a prehistoric biblical force. Arm yourself to be immersed by a screen-based event that fuses visceral dread with biblical origins, landing on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Malevolent takeover has been a mainstay theme in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is turned on its head when the fiends no longer appear from external sources, but rather from within. This portrays the haunting shade of the protagonists. The result is a intense moral showdown where the intensity becomes a constant push-pull between good and evil.


In a wilderness-stricken landscape, five individuals find themselves caught under the possessive force and possession of a mysterious spirit. As the group becomes incapable to combat her control, abandoned and tormented by evils beyond comprehension, they are obligated to battle their inner horrors while the time without pity moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear surges and ties fracture, prompting each individual to question their identity and the nature of decision-making itself. The danger climb with every short lapse, delivering a cinematic nightmare that harmonizes demonic fright with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to evoke core terror, an malevolence beyond time, feeding on emotional vulnerability, and examining a curse that dismantles free will when robbed of choice.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra demanded embodying something more primal than sorrow. She is uninformed until the evil takes hold, and that transition is harrowing because it is so close.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers around the globe can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just shared a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a response to its first preview, which has been viewed over 100K plays.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to lovers of terror across nations.


Don’t miss this gripping journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to experience these terrifying truths about free will.


For sneak peeks, extra content, and news from the cast and crew, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across your socials and visit the official movie site.





U.S. horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate blends archetypal-possession themes, independent shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Across survival horror rooted in near-Eastern lore through to installment follow-ups together with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted in tandem with calculated campaign year in recent memory.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors bookend the months using marquee IP, in tandem platform operators flood the fall with new voices and primordial unease. At the same time, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the tailwinds from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween stays the prime week, the surrounding weeks are charted with intent. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are exacting, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s schedule lights the fuse with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, in a clear present-tense world. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Booked into mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

By late summer, Warner Bros. drops the final chapter of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, courting teens and the thirty something base. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

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

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold case horror anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a body horror duet with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It moves between affection and rot, a triptych into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s set vampire folk tale starring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Going live October 2 on major services, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As night descends, so does Kyra’s power, an invasive force that exploits their deepest fears, weaknesses, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this piece touches 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.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No puffed out backstory. No franchise baggage. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Badges as Fuel

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

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate, a tropical body horror curtain raiser, invites Cronenberg Herzog comp. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, geared to push its techno horror story world with added characters and AI made scares. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, steered by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

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.

Dials to Watch

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror extends beyond terror, it frames evil as primordial.

Body horror returns
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Streamers deploy capital toward scripts, directors, and paid reach. Films like Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. In 2025, a horror film lacking festival plan may fade.

The big screen is a trust exercise
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

Projection: Fall stack and winter swing card

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The forthcoming 2026 Horror season: installments, new stories, as well as A stacked Calendar Built For frights

Dek The new genre season packs immediately with a January cluster, thereafter spreads through midyear, and running into the late-year period, mixing legacy muscle, untold stories, and strategic counterweight. Studios and streamers are doubling down on lean spends, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that shape these releases into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in programming grids, a lane that can expand when it performs and still cushion the downside when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that mid-range scare machines can shape the zeitgeist, 2024 kept energy high with festival-darling auteurs and surprise hits. The energy fed into 2025, where reboots and festival-grade titles showed there is demand for a spectrum, from series extensions to non-IP projects that translate worldwide. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across the major shops, with planned clusters, a mix of household franchises and original hooks, and a reinvigorated commitment on exhibition windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and streaming.

Executives say the space now performs as a fill-in ace on the release plan. Horror can roll out on numerous frames, supply a simple premise for ad units and reels, and over-index with ticket buyers that line up on preview nights and keep coming through the subsequent weekend if the release fires. After a strike-impacted pipeline, the 2026 configuration reflects conviction in that playbook. The slate kicks off with a crowded January lineup, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while making space for a autumn push that reaches into Halloween and into post-Halloween. The gridline also features the tightening integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can platform and widen, grow buzz, and broaden at the sweet spot.

A notable top-line trend is series management across brand ecosystems and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another sequel. They are moving to present continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a art treatment that broadcasts a tonal shift or a casting move that bridges a upcoming film to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the auteurs behind the eagerly awaited originals are embracing on-set craft, practical effects and grounded locations. That combination hands 2026 a confident blend of recognition and invention, which is how the films export.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two marquee projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the core, signaling it as both a lineage transfer and a heritage-centered character-focused installment. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture conveys a heritage-honoring strategy without repeating the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Plan for a rollout rooted in franchise iconography, first images of characters, and a rollout cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also reboots a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will feature. As a summer contrast play, this one will hunt four-quadrant chatter through joke-first clips, with the horror spoof format allowing quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated strategies. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is clean, grief-rooted, and big-hook: a grieving man purchases an artificial companion that turns into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to mirror strange in-person beats and snackable content that interweaves attachment and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a title drop to become an teaser payoff closer to the early tease. The timing creates a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Anchoring the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has excelled in before. Peele’s releases are presented as creative events, with a concept-forward tease and a second wave of trailers that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use 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 directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a in-your-face, makeup-driven strategy can feel deluxe on a disciplined budget. Expect a gore-forward summer horror charge that centers global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio places two franchise maneuvers in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a steady supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is positioning as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both core fans and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build materials around canon, and practical creature work, elements that can drive large-format demand and cosplayer momentum.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by careful craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is warm.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Digital strategies for 2026 run on proven patterns. Universal’s genre entries window into copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ordering that boosts both opening-weekend urgency and sign-up momentum in the tail. Prime Video blends library titles with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, October hubs, and curated rows to increase tail value on 2026 genre cume. Netflix plays opportunist about own-slate titles and festival snaps, confirming horror entries closer to launch and elevating as drops go-lives with quick-run campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a tiered of targeted theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating fan pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a selective basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to acquire select projects with accomplished filmmakers or star-led packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a critical input for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation swells.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is tight: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, upgraded for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors looking for R-rated counterplay in the back half.

Focus will lean into the auteur lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through the autumn circuit if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday slot to open out. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Source Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Keep an eye on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that premieres at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using boutique theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their user base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By weight, 2026 skews toward the series side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on fan equity. The trade-off, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to position each entry as a fresh tone. Paramount is foregrounding character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is indicating a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is highlighting a continental coloration from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices carry weight when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and auteur plays add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, centers Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is known enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from thriving when the brand was sticky. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga showed the market that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character spine and themes and to maintain a flow of assets without pause points.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate forecast a continued emphasis on material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that highlights unease and texture rather than thrill-ride spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a wintry, elemental feel on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and artisan spotlights before rolling out a first look that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which favor fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel irresistible. Look for trailers that accent disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that land in big rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is heavy. 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 macro-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is meaningful, but the palette of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth spreads.

Post-January through spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now nurtures 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can thrive next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late-season stretch leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a pre-October slot that still ties into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film takes October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a minimalist tease strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can work in holiday corridor when imp source packaged as craft prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then pressing critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and holiday gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion mutates into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech-horror with an emotional core.

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 extends the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man ventures back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss fight to survive on a lonely island as the power balance upends and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to dread, built on Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 in-home haunting piece that frames the panic through a little one’s wavering internal vantage. Rating: rating pending. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-crafted and marquee-led spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons contemporary horror memes and true crime fixations. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 flares, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a another family entangled with past horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-core horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: closely held. Rating: to be announced. 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 era-faithful speech and elemental menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in active prep with holiday date set. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

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

Why this year, why now

Three practical forces shape this lineup. First, production that slowed or recalendared in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine 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 works.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or play as the older-leaning alternative. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will share space across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will land under the $40–$50 million mark, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration 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 dark-horse hunt 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 exploit those windows. 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. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc 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 pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives 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 somber, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, sonics, and imagery 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 Is Well Positioned

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand heft where it matters, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios get how and when audiences want scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, shape lean trailers, protect the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.