Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed summons antediluvian malevolence, a chilling horror thriller, arriving Oct 2025 on major platforms

This chilling mystic fear-driven tale from dramatist / film architect Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an primeval malevolence when unrelated individuals become subjects in a demonic conflict. Dropping this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a intense portrayal of resilience and ancient evil that will alter scare flicks this season. Guided by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this nerve-racking and gothic tale follows five unknowns who are stirred sealed in a remote shack under the oppressive command of Kyra, a female presence haunted by a prehistoric sacred-era entity. Get ready to be seized by a cinematic venture that unites intense horror with mythic lore, hitting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a mainstay theme in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that structure is turned on its head when the malevolences no longer appear outside the characters, but rather inside their minds. This embodies the most terrifying dimension of all involved. The result is a intense moral showdown where the story becomes a unforgiving clash between virtue and vice.


In a isolated wilderness, five friends find themselves marooned under the evil dominion and curse of a obscure female presence. As the characters becomes submissive to withstand her command, isolated and followed by spirits inconceivable, they are confronted to acknowledge their greatest panics while the seconds ruthlessly ticks toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety builds and links fracture, urging each survivor to evaluate their being and the integrity of freedom of choice itself. The hazard accelerate with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that harmonizes spiritual fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my objective was to tap into elemental fright, an evil that predates humanity, channeling itself through psychological breaks, and wrestling with a darkness that peels away humanity when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra required summoning something deeper than fear. She is unaware until the possession kicks in, and that change is gut-wrenching because it is so unshielded.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—giving subscribers around the globe can experience this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, streaming to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its original clip, which has collected over thousands of viewers.


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be distributed abroad, spreading the horror to scare fans abroad.


Be sure to catch this cinematic trip into the unknown. Experience *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to explore these evil-rooted truths about mankind.


For cast commentary, filmmaker commentary, and reveals from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s inflection point: the 2025 cycle domestic schedule fuses old-world possession, signature indie scares, set against legacy-brand quakes

Ranging from endurance-driven terror drawn from primordial scripture through to returning series plus incisive indie visions, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered along with blueprinted year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. studio majors plant stakes across the year through proven series, in parallel OTT services crowd the fall with new voices plus legend-coded dread. At the same time, indie storytellers is riding the carry of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the other windows are mapped with care. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, thus 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Elevated fear reclaims ground

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

the Universal camp opens the year with a big gambit: a contemporary Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. Booked into mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

By spring, Clown in a Cornfield premieres, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Steered by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Advance murmurs say it draws blood.

Toward summer’s end, Warner Bros. launches the swan song of its most reliable horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves is expected to tune it to a grieving, self reflective color. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Next is The Black Phone 2. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the memorable motifs return: retrograde shiver, trauma in the foreground, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, speaking to teens and older millennials. It books December, pinning the winter close.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the project unites horror with dramatic charge. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a close quarters body horror study including Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Visualized in sepia palette with scriptural metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

Extra indies bide their time on platforms: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film stands as Halloween counterprogramming to sequel glut and monster revivals. It reads as sharp positioning. No puffed out backstory. No sequel clutter. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a revenge folktale steeped in Aztec myth, is tapped to close with fire.

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 rolled out Clown in a Cornfield and a clutch of microbudget haunts near deals. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Laurels now light the fuse, they do not just adorn.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

The legacy lineup looks stronger and more deliberate than prior years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first title’s online shareability and streaming stickiness fuel Universal’s appetite.

The Long Walk adapts an early, scathing Stephen King work, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Key Trends

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror comes roaring back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival seals operate as leverage for distribution lanes and press windows. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

The big screen is a trust exercise
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Forward View: Fall crush plus winter X factor

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 must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December centers on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but a final weeks surprise stream could still hit. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The new scare season: follow-ups, original films, plus A hectic Calendar Built For frights

Dek: The brand-new terror year packs at the outset with a January wave, before it rolls through peak season, and carrying into the holiday frame, marrying IP strength, novel approaches, and calculated release strategy. Studios and streamers are leaning into cost discipline, theater-first strategies, and viral-minded pushes that frame genre titles into mainstream chatter.

The genre’s posture for 2026

Horror filmmaking has grown into the bankable play in distribution calendars, a category that can scale when it performs and still cushion the floor when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that modestly budgeted pictures can command the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films made clear there is space for diverse approaches, from series extensions to original features that scale internationally. The result for 2026 is a schedule that feels more orchestrated than usual across the market, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of recognizable IP and new pitches, and a sharpened attention on cinema windows that increase tail monetization on premium on-demand and platforms.

Studio leaders note the genre now performs as a schedule utility on the release plan. The genre can launch on many corridors, yield a clear pitch for previews and TikTok spots, and outstrip with crowds that show up on opening previews and continue through the follow-up frame if the release hits. After a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 cadence signals certainty in that setup. The slate starts with a weighty January lineup, then uses spring and early summer for balance, while leaving room for a fall cadence that runs into spooky season and afterwards. The layout also illustrates the greater integration of specialty distributors and streaming partners that can nurture a platform play, grow buzz, and grow at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across unified worlds and storied titles. Studio teams are not just making another installment. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a brandmark that signals a tonal shift or a casting choice that anchors a new entry to a early run. At the meanwhile, the directors behind the headline-grabbing originals are leaning into material texture, real effects and distinct locales. That pairing delivers 2026 a lively combination of home base and newness, which is how horror tends to travel globally.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount fires first with two centerpiece bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, positioning the film as both a passing of the torch and a DNA-forward character-focused installment. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the tonal posture signals a classic-referencing angle without going over the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Look for a marketing run rooted in legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm hitting late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will feature. As a summer relief option, this one will chase four-quadrant chatter through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format inviting quick shifts to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three clear lanes. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a technology-driven offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, sorrow-tinged, and elevator-pitch-ready: a grieving man implements an virtual partner that mutates into a killer companion. The date puts it at the front of a stacked January, with the marketing arm likely to replay off-kilter promo beats and bite-size content that mixes companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a branding reveal to become an attention spike closer to the first trailer. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles cluster around other dates.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. Peele’s work are presented as signature events, with a opaque teaser and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween-adjacent date offers Universal room to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then capitalize on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, collaborates with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček helms, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has demonstrated that a tactile, in-camera leaning treatment can feel premium on a moderate cost. Expect a splatter summer horror hit that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio sets two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film premieres August 21, 2026, carrying a proven supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch continues to develop. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is presenting as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and new audiences. The fall slot provides the studio time to build promo materials around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase IMAX and PLF uptake and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by rigorous craft and textual fidelity, this time steeped in lycan lore. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform wide if early reception is robust.

SVOD and PVOD rhythms

Digital strategies for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films window into copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that boosts both debut momentum and platform bumps in the tail. Prime Video combines catalogue additions with worldwide buys and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in library curation, using in-app campaigns, horror hubs, and curated rows to lengthen the tail on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps options open about Netflix films and festival wins, finalizing horror entries closer to drop and turning into events debuts with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a tiered of precision releases and swift platform pivots that turns chatter to conversion. That will matter for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a discrete basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to secure select projects with recognized filmmakers or star packages, then give them a boutique theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for month-over-month retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 arc with two brand-forward moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult item, upgraded for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has positioned a cinema-first plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the October weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, stewarding the film through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then pressing the holiday corridor to open out. That positioning has worked well for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A plausible forecast is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception encourages. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Legacy titles versus originals

By weight, 2026 leans toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit franchise value. The concern, as ever, is audience fatigue. The near-term solution is to brand each entry as a new angle. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is floating a full reset for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Three-year comps illuminate the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that observed windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, art-forward horror exceeded expectations in premium large format. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they pivot perspective and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds 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 shot in tandem, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through relationships and themes and to hold creative in the market without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The shop talk behind this slate signal a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that centers aura and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most shadowed project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and historically accurate language, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in long-lead press and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a initial teaser that centers atmosphere over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will live or die on creature design and production design, which fit with convention floor stunts and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound design showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats 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. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid big-brand pushes. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the mix of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth spreads.

Q1 into Q2 build the summer base. Scream 7 opens February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now nurtures big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers hard-R intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Shoulder season into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil follows September 18, a bridge slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a slow-reveal plan and limited disclosures that elevate concept over story.

Awards-adjacent specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, measured platforming, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card spend.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production pushes forward. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: heritage pivot with a current edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something fatal and romantic. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to encounter a altering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 tough boss scramble to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance shifts and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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 contemporary re-envisioning that returns the monster to fear, grounded in Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 in-home haunting scenario that explores the dread of a child’s uncertain impressions. Rating: not yet rated. Production: picture-locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven ghostly suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A genre lampoon that lampoons of-the-moment horror beats and true-crime crazes. Rating: not yet rated. Production: filming slated 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 spreads, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: undetermined. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: bankable spirit-world IP in a proven lane.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: to be announced publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A reboot designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

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: not yet rated. 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: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026, why now

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that hiccuped or re-sequenced in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and compressed 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 exceeded straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, platform buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage bite-size scare clips from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

Another factor is the scheduling math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, opening usable real estate for genre entries that can capture a weekend or sit as the slightly older-skewing alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will line up across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, 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 target range. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for robust premium-format allocation 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 sleeper chase 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 use those gaps. 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 navigate to this website 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. Expect a healthy PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers flow and breadth. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, 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 compound over time, using earlier releases to prime the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, smart allocations, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundcraft, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is name recognition where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep secrets, and let the frights sell the seats.