Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on top streamers

One eerie supernatural shockfest from creator / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an mythic fear when unfamiliar people become subjects in a dark experiment. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing depiction of endurance and ancient evil that will reimagine terror storytelling this spooky time. Crafted by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five people who snap to stuck in a secluded cabin under the oppressive manipulation of Kyra, a possessed female inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be hooked by a audio-visual journey that harmonizes instinctive fear with legendary tales, coming on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a time-honored element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that concept is subverted when the presences no longer manifest beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the most hidden layer of the victims. The result is a edge-of-seat internal warfare where the tension becomes a intense contest between divinity and wickedness.


In a bleak natural abyss, five souls find themselves cornered under the sinister influence and spiritual invasion of a secretive figure. As the ensemble becomes helpless to deny her power, detached and tracked by unknowns mind-shattering, they are thrust to stand before their deepest fears while the clock mercilessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, dread mounts and associations collapse, pressuring each figure to challenge their personhood and the nature of volition itself. The danger rise with every tick, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes paranormal dread with emotional fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to evoke instinctual horror, an darkness older than civilization itself, embedding itself in emotional fractures, and questioning a darkness that redefines identity when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Living Kyra was centered on something past sanity. She is blind until the control shifts, and that change is deeply unsettling because it is so unshielded.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for on-demand beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring horror lovers globally can survive this demonic journey.


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


In addition to its continental debut, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, offering the tale to scare fans abroad.


Witness this bone-rattling journey into fear. Enter *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to experience these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For director insights, special features, and promotions from the story's source, follow @YACFilm across fan hubs and visit the movie portal.





Today’s horror Turning Point: the year 2025 U.S. calendar interlaces Mythic Possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

From fight-to-live nightmare stories grounded in near-Eastern lore all the way to returning series set beside acutely observed indies, 2025 is coalescing into the richest plus blueprinted year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar goes beyond packed, it is precision-tuned. studio powerhouses bookend the months via recognizable brands, concurrently streaming platforms crowd the fall with first-wave breakthroughs set against ancient terrors. On the independent axis, independent banners is fueled by the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the schedule beyond October is tightly engineered. A fat September–October lane is customary now, and now, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are calculated, so 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Premium dread reemerges

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

Universal’s slate fires the first shot with a confident swing: a refashioned Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, within a sleek contemporary canvas. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. Slated for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Guided by Eli Craig and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. Early reactions hint at fangs.

At summer’s close, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its bankable horror series: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. While the template is known, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a franchise that brings its own crowd. The new chapter enriches the lore, broadens the animatronic terror cast, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

Streaming Originals: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the release pairs unease with narrative heft. Arriving to cinemas late summer then to streamers in fall, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a sealed box body horror arc featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Set at a remote rental during a getaway that sours, the piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it looks like a certain fall stream.

Then there is Sinners, a 1930s rooted vampire folk legend with Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each explores grief and disappearance and identity, opting allegory above bombast.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Posting October 2 across the big platforms, Young & Cursed presents a rare union, close in focus, wide in mythology. From writer director Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled 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. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith is not summoned by priests, she rises from trauma, muteness, and human fault lines. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No heavy handed lore. No series drag. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You are getting buzz not just for their titles but for their execution. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW hosted Clown in a Cornfield and sweetened the pot for microbudget haunts. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, with Francis Lawrence directing, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Meanwhile, reboots and sequels like Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda appear through the year, many poised for targeted windows or last minute deals.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
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 Makes a Comeback
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streamer originals stiffen their spine
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels move markets, opening release doors and coverage arcs. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

Season Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will grind for attention. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The new fear lineup: next chapters, non-franchise titles, paired with A jammed Calendar aimed at jolts

Dek The upcoming terror calendar lines up from day one with a January bottleneck, following that unfolds through June and July, and far into the winter holidays, weaving brand heft, new voices, and data-minded counterprogramming. The big buyers and platforms are committing to tight budgets, cinema-first plans, and shareable marketing that position horror entries into cross-demo moments.

The genre’s posture for 2026

This space has shown itself to be the sturdy option in release plans, a vertical that can grow when it clicks and still insulate the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year proved to buyers that lean-budget genre plays can steer mainstream conversation, 2024 continued the surge with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The head of steam translated to the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers signaled there is a market for diverse approaches, from returning installments to director-led originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that is strikingly coherent across the market, with clear date clusters, a mix of recognizable IP and new packages, and a sharpened commitment on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium home window and subscription services.

Schedulers say the genre now behaves like a flex slot on the programming map. The genre can arrive on virtually any date, provide a grabby hook for spots and UGC-friendly snippets, and punch above weight with demo groups that turn out on Thursday previews and continue through the second weekend if the release satisfies. Coming out of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup shows assurance in that engine. The calendar launches with a thick January block, then primes spring and early summer for alternate plays, while making space for a September to October window that extends to All Hallows period and past the holiday. The gridline also features the greater integration of indie distributors and home platforms that can nurture a platform play, create conversation, and scale up at the optimal moment.

A second macro trend is legacy care across ongoing universes and long-running brands. Studio teams are not just producing another next film. They are moving to present brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a logo package that flags a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that ties a incoming chapter to a early run. At the same time, the directors behind the marquee originals are favoring tactile craft, practical gags and distinct locales. That alloy gives 2026 a solid mix of trust and discovery, which is why the genre exports well.

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

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the focus, steering it as both a relay and a heritage-centered character-forward chapter. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the creative posture indicates a throwback-friendly bent without rehashing the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Expect a marketing push stacked with franchise iconography, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are re-teaming, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a summer counterprogrammer, this one will seek wide appeal through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format making room for quick adjustments to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three unique lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is straightforward, heartbroken, and logline-clear: a grieving man activates an machine companion that unfolds into a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the marketing arm likely to echo creepy live activations and short-form creative that threads companionship and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a proper title to become an teaser payoff closer to the teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film reserves October 23, 2026, a slot he has thrived in before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then pivot to the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has made clear that a flesh-and-blood, on-set effects led style can feel premium on a controlled budget. Look for a red-band summer horror rush that spotlights worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio launches two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, sustaining a proven supernatural brand in motion while the spin-off branch moves forward. The studio has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a charge to serve both longtime followers and casuals. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around mythos, and monster design, elements that can amplify deluxe auditorium demand and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by textural authenticity and period language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already claimed the date for a holiday release, a clear message in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s genre entries transition to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that enhances both week-one demand and viewer acquisition in the later phase. Prime Video combines outside acquisitions with world buys and small theatrical windows when the data justifies it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in deep cuts, using editorial spots, seasonal hubs, and handpicked rows to lengthen the tail on aggregate take. Netflix remains opportunistic about own-slate titles and festival snaps, locking in horror entries tight to release and elevating as drops arrivals with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, harnesses a two-step of targeted cinema placements and rapid platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a discrete basis. The platform has indicated interest to buy select projects with acclaimed directors or headline-cast packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation heats up.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 sequence with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a diehard favorite, updated for modern mix and image. 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 indicated a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an upbeat indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the back half.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the year-end corridor to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception merits. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work hand in hand, using precision theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

IP versus fresh ideas

By share, the 2026 slate bends toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The workable fix is to pitch each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is bringing forward character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a buzzed-about director. Those choices register when the audience has so many options and social sentiment swings fast.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-led entries deliver oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the package is grounded enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

The last three-year set announce the template. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not block a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror exceeded expectations in big-format auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga underlined that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and scale the storytelling. 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 dual-chapter plan, with chapters shot consecutively, permits marketing to bridge entries through cast and motif and to keep assets alive without long gaps.

Craft and creative trends

The craft rooms behind these films hint at a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is aimed at 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 smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for wraparound sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft features before rolling out a mood teaser that withholds plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and produces shareable crowd-reaction snippets from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta reframe that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on creature and environment design, which match well with fan-con activations and selective drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel essential. Look for trailers that accent precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that land in big rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 brooding contrast amid larger brand plays. The month finishes 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 thick, but the tonal variety gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure permits a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Late Q1 and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is strong. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously clicked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a bridge slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited disclosures that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to linger in conversation into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while carrying holiday turnout and gift-card use.

Project-by-project snapshots

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. 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 devastated man’s machine mate mutates into something perilously amorous. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: algorithmic dread with emotion.

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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially 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 heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her prickly boss scramble to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: A-list 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 from-today rework that returns the monster to dread, grounded in Cronin’s on-set craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting scenario that pipes the unease through a child’s unsteady personal vantage. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-crafted and headline-actor led eerie suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A satire sequel that lampoons hot-button genre motifs and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBA. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. 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 bursts, with an cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be revealed later. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further reopens, with a new household linked to old terrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an center of gravity in survival-driven horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: forthcoming. Production: development underway with firm date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: to be announced. Production: in progress. 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 period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 big-screen run before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three workable forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic 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 releases. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate clippable moments from test screenings, select scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it holds up.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early corridors for family and capes are leaner in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can capture a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will jostle across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can benefit from a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for 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 breakout 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 work those windows. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

How the viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April returns a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you preserve buzz while driving admissions without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can ratchet upward, using earlier releases to condition the click to read more audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can earn PLF placement, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, soundcraft, and camera work 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

Release dates move. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is sturdy. There is name recognition where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios read audience appetite 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, craft precise trailers, lock the reveals, and let the chills sell the seats.