Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts primeval malevolence, a bone chilling supernatural thriller, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

A eerie spiritual terror film from scriptwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an prehistoric entity when outsiders become subjects in a hellish maze. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – stay alert for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing narrative of resistance and ancient evil that will transform the fear genre this October. Crafted by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and atmospheric tale follows five people who emerge imprisoned in a wooded structure under the aggressive sway of Kyra, a tormented girl consumed by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Steel yourself to be immersed by a big screen adventure that combines deep-seated panic with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a historical fixture in visual storytelling. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the fiends no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather through their own souls. This suggests the shadowy facet of all involved. The result is a riveting internal warfare where the suspense becomes a merciless clash between right and wrong.


In a barren outland, five youths find themselves imprisoned under the ghastly influence and control of a enigmatic spirit. As the cast becomes unresisting to fight her command, detached and attacked by presences impossible to understand, they are made to stand before their greatest panics while the deathwatch mercilessly ticks toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension swells and connections dissolve, compelling each soul to evaluate their values and the nature of self-determination itself. The hazard rise with every heartbeat, delivering a cinematic nightmare that intertwines spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to extract ancestral fear, an evil beyond time, filtering through emotional fractures, and examining a evil that erodes the self when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Taking on the role of Kyra needed manifesting something past sanity. She is ignorant until the invasion happens, and that turn is eerie because it is so emotional.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be released for streaming beginning this October 2, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving horror lovers from coast to coast can dive into this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original promo, which has attracted over 100K plays.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shared across borders, offering the tale to fans of fear everywhere.


Experience this unforgettable descent into hell. Brace yourself for *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to see these fearful discoveries about the human condition.


For director insights, special features, and social posts via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Modern horror’s decisive shift: the year 2025 U.S. release slate fuses Mythic Possession, art-house nightmares, set against series shake-ups

From survivor-centric dread infused with near-Eastern lore and including franchise returns in concert with surgical indie voices, 2025 looks like the most complex along with blueprinted year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. Major studios stabilize the year using marquee IP, at the same time platform operators pack the fall with new perspectives alongside legend-coded dread. On the festival side, independent banners is drafting behind the echoes from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the remaining months are slotted with surgical care. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are calculated, thus 2025 might go down as horror’s most intentional year yet.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are assertive. If 2024 primed the reset, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a big gambit: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Directed by Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this take locates the lycanthropy inside home disintegration. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

By late summer, the Warner lot sets loose the finale inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson re engages, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This time the stakes climb, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, thickens the animatronic pantheon, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It drops in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Steered by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

More contained by design is Together, a tight space body horror vignette led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It plays romantic, grotesque, and acutely uneasy, a three act descent into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is tracking toward an autumn slot.

On the docket is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

Additional platform indies hold in reserve: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession From Within: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

The Halloween window on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home frames the film as counter to sequel saturation and creature revivals. That is a savvy move. No bloated canon. No brand fatigue. 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 Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge piece in Aztec lore, likely shuts the fest with heat.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festivals in 2025 double as branding machines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

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. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Elsewhere, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda pepper the schedule, many waiting on strategic holds or late deals.

Key Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Autumn crowding, winter surprise

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. As several big titles lean dark and mythic, there is room for one last creature feature or exorcism flick.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The plan is not to clone Get Out, it is to craft horror that lives on beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 fright lineup: installments, Originals, and also A busy Calendar engineered for chills

Dek: The upcoming horror slate lines up in short order with a January bottleneck, following that unfolds through June and July, and continuing into the late-year period, fusing brand equity, original angles, and strategic counterplay. Studios with streamers are prioritizing responsible budgets, box-office-first windows, and social-fueled campaigns that frame these releases into broad-appeal conversations.

The landscape of horror in 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the predictable counterweight in annual schedules, a space that can break out when it connects and still mitigate the losses when it misses. After the 2023 year re-taught greenlighters that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can steer pop culture, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and sleeper breakouts. The energy carried into 2025, where revived properties and elevated films signaled there is space for diverse approaches, from series extensions to non-IP projects that scale internationally. The upshot for 2026 is a schedule that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium digital rental and OTT platforms.

Buyers contend the horror lane now works like a versatile piece on the slate. Horror can premiere on numerous frames, furnish a tight logline for previews and TikTok spots, and outstrip with patrons that arrive on first-look nights and continue through the next weekend if the movie hits. Emerging from a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 plan signals trust in that playbook. The calendar gets underway with a stacked January band, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into All Hallows period and beyond. The schedule also features the increasing integration of specialized imprints and platforms that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and go nationwide at the proper time.

A notable top-line trend is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Studios are not just turning out another chapter. They are moving to present lore continuity with a sense of event, whether that is a logo package that suggests a fresh attitude or a ensemble decision that bridges a next entry to a first wave. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are favoring physical effects work, physical gags and location-forward worlds. That combination provides 2026 a healthy mix of brand comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount opens strong with two headline moves that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the center, marketing it as both a passing of the torch and a origin-leaning relationship-driven entry. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the authorial approach telegraphs a throwback-friendly framework without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Count on a promo wave rooted in recognizable motifs, first-look character reveals, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also revives 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 behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will foreground. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after broad awareness through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick adjustments to whatever tops genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, soulful, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an AI companion that shifts into a perilous partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to revisit eerie street stunts and snackable content that threads intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a official title to become an fan moment closer to the first look. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele titles are presented as marquee events, with a teaser that reveals little and a second trailer wave 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 lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a visceral, practical-effects forward approach can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror rush that leans hard into foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international markets.

Sony’s horror bench is notably deep. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. Sony has reshuffled on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is describing as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a primary part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and general audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build promo materials around lore, and monster craft, elements that can amplify IMAX and PLF uptake and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances Eggers’ run of period horror grounded in minute detail and textual fidelity, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can grow wide if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on well-known grooves. Universal titles window into copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a ladder that expands both debut momentum and subscriber lifts in the tail. Prime Video combines licensed films with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu press their advantages in catalog engagement, using featured rows, genre hubs, and handpicked rows to sustain interest on 2026 genre cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix originals and festival grabs, timing horror entries closer to launch and framing as events launches with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a laddered of limited theatrical footprints and rapid platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to purchase select projects with name filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation swells.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 pipeline 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 direct: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a big-screen first plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the brutal series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the September weeks.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the holiday frame to broaden. That positioning has shown results for filmmaker-driven genre with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception merits. Look 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 hand in hand, using mini theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their user base.

Balance of brands and originals

By tilt, 2026 skews toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all leverage name recognition. The trade-off, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to position each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is leading with relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a island survival premise with signature tonal menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the cast-creatives package is comforting enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Rolling three-year comps contextualize the logic. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a simultaneous release test from delivering when the brand was robust. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they alter lens and elevate scope. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to bridge entries through character web and themes and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

How the look and feel evolve

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the 2026 slate hint at a continued preference for practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on texture and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and era-correct language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and creates shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta-horror reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster work and world-building, which play well in convention activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel compelling. Look for trailers that underscore surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that work in PLF.

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. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid larger brand plays. The month wraps 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 serious, but the range of tones carves a lane for each, 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 debuts February 27 with fan warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now enables 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 sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes severe intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while imp source the mid-summer gorefest scratches the itch for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

August and September into October leans series. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a transitional slot that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a opaque tease strategy and limited advance reveals that put concept first.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can thrive over the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and holiday gift-card burn.

Project briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to counter a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s machine mate unfolds into something lethally affectionate. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

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 emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Double-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to stumble upon a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first 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 unyielding boss struggle to survive on a isolated island as the control dynamic tilts and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 kept quiet in official materials. Logline: A renewed vision that returns the monster to chill, based on Cronin’s practical effects and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting scenario that toys with the chill of a child’s shaky read. Rating: not yet rated. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-backed and star-fronted spirit-world suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes hot-button genre motifs and true crime fascinations. Rating: TBA. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

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 breaks out, with an overseas 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: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family linked to residual nightmares. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be disclosed. Top cast: TBA. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recreate the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survivalist horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: not yet rated. Production: active. 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 historical diction and raw menace. Rating: TBD. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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 conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date variable, fall window probable.

Why 2026, why now

Three operational forces inform this lineup. First, production that eased or rearranged in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. 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 outperformed straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, precision scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

The slot calculus is real. Family and superhero corridors are not as densely packed in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can control a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will jostle across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where value-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Project a sturdy PVOD period across titles, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reanimates a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back supernatural punch 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 hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors respond well to the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, soundscape, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Windows change. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is IP strength where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for 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-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, keep secrets, and let the fear sell the seats.