Ancient Terror Stirs in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising thriller, landing October 2025 on major platforms

This blood-curdling paranormal suspense film from storyteller / helmer Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an long-buried entity when unfamiliar people become conduits in a fiendish maze. Airings begin October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a traumatizing account of resistance and mythic evil that will revamp fear-driven cinema this October. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and atmospheric film follows five people who arise locked in a off-grid cottage under the menacing sway of Kyra, a young woman claimed by a time-worn scriptural evil. Steel yourself to be shaken by a big screen presentation that intertwines soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a enduring motif in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is reversed when the demons no longer originate from external sources, but rather from within. This depicts the darkest facet of the protagonists. The result is a psychologically brutal identity crisis where the tension becomes a merciless push-pull between divinity and wickedness.


In a abandoned wilderness, five individuals find themselves cornered under the dark dominion and haunting of a uncanny character. As the group becomes defenseless to withstand her will, detached and attacked by spirits beyond comprehension, they are confronted to confront their worst nightmares while the deathwatch ruthlessly edges forward toward their obliteration.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear mounts and alliances collapse, forcing each member to doubt their true nature and the concept of freedom of choice itself. The danger surge with every minute, delivering a chilling narrative that harmonizes ghostly evil with raw emotion.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to extract core terror, an threat beyond recorded history, working through our weaknesses, and challenging a evil that tests the soul when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra asked for exploring something deeper than fear. She is unseeing until the control shifts, and that conversion is terrifying because it is so intimate.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for digital release beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—guaranteeing customers from coast to coast can experience this unholy film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new second trailer for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has seen over a viral response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, presenting the nightmare to viewers around the world.


Mark your calendar for this haunted journey into fear. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this October 2 to dive into these nightmarish insights about the mind.


For sneak peeks, filmmaker commentary, and announcements directly from production, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit the film’s website.





The horror genre’s sea change: the 2025 season domestic schedule weaves legend-infused possession, signature indie scares, and legacy-brand quakes

From grit-forward survival fare infused with biblical myth all the way to brand-name continuations in concert with focused festival visions, 2025 stands to become the most variegated paired with blueprinted year in a decade.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year via recognizable brands, while platform operators load up the fall with unboxed visions together with ancestral chills. Meanwhile, the artisan tier is fueled by the backdraft from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Because Halloween stands as the showcase, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige terror resurfaces

The upper tier is moving decisively. If 2024 set the base, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a bold swing: a modernized Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a sharp contemporary setting. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. dated for 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.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher novel refit as minimal menace. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

Toward summer’s end, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Though the outline is tried, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It lands in early September, carving air ahead of October’s stack.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson returns to the helm, and the DNA that clicked last time remains: vintage toned fear, trauma explicitly handled, and eerie supernatural logic. The stakes escalate here, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The sequel leans deeper into its lore, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, with a bullseye on teens and thirty something nostalgics. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streamer Exclusives: No Budget, No Problem

While theaters bet on familiarity, platforms are greenlighting boldly, and the needle moves.

A top daring platform piece is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece interlacing three eras linked by a mass vanishing. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the work combines fright with dramatic torque. Hitting theaters late summer with fall digital, it stands to prompt frame-by-frame breakdowns as with Barbarian.

On the minimalist axis arrives Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also rising is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The threat is psychological first, wired with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith is not conjured by ritual, she surfaces through trauma, silence, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of 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. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated canon. No series drag. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

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 premiered Clown in a Cornfield and surfaced several microbudget hauntings that circle deals. Sundance is on track for grief tuned elevated horror, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Visualize tiaras, fake gore, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 drops late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. 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.

Emerging Currents

Ancient myth goes wide
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. All others choose PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

The Road Ahead: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. Expect one or more to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The next scare year to come: continuations, Originals, in tandem with A jammed Calendar calibrated for Scares

Dek: The upcoming terror season packs immediately with a January crush, before it stretches through summer corridors, and straight through the holidays, balancing series momentum, inventive spins, and shrewd calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are leaning into smart costs, theatrical exclusivity first, and influencer-ready assets that frame these offerings into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The horror sector has emerged as the consistent tool in distribution calendars, a lane that can spike when it breaks through and still safeguard the drawdown when it stumbles. After 2023 demonstrated to greenlighters that responsibly budgeted horror vehicles can own the zeitgeist, the following year continued the surge with director-led heat and surprise hits. The trend flowed into 2025, where revivals and filmmaker-prestige bets underscored there is a market for many shades, from ongoing IP entries to standalone ideas that export nicely. The combined impact for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across the field, with purposeful groupings, a balance of household franchises and novel angles, and a tightened focus on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and SVOD.

Distribution heads claim the genre now behaves like a schedule utility on the rollout map. Horror can launch on most weekends, deliver a simple premise for promo reels and vertical videos, and over-index with audiences that line up on previews Thursday and continue through the week two if the feature connects. Coming out of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern demonstrates conviction in that engine. The year kicks off with a heavy January lineup, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while carving room for a autumn push that extends to the Halloween corridor and beyond. The program also underscores the expanded integration of indie arms and digital platforms that can grow from platform, create conversation, and roll out at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is IP stewardship across unified worlds and established properties. Major shops are not just making another continuation. They are setting up threaded continuity with a specialness, whether that is a logo package that flags a reframed mood or a ensemble decision that links a new entry to a initial period. At the concurrently, the creative teams behind the headline-grabbing originals are doubling down on practical craft, on-set effects and place-driven backdrops. That mix affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of familiarity and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece pushes that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the spine, positioning the film as both a handoff and a heritage-centered relationship-driven entry. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the tonal posture indicates a heritage-honoring framework without recycling the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign built on brand visuals, intro reveals, and a rollout cadence rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also resurrects a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved in development for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a counterweight in summer, this one will seek large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format fitting quick turns to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tech-forward branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is tidy, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that becomes a killer companion. The date sets it at the front of a thick month, with the marketing arm likely to renew creepy live activations and micro spots that interlaces attachment and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio lines up an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a title drop to become an fan moment closer to the debut look. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele’s releases are framed as director events, with a mystery-first teaser and a next wave of trailers that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor affords Universal to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a gritty, on-set effects led approach can feel prestige on a disciplined budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that pushes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan holds it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is selling as a reset for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a central part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a explicit mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around setting detail, and practical creature work, elements that can boost premium booking interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on minute detail and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. The label has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in Eggers as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Platform lanes and windowing

Platform windowing in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries flow to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a structure that boosts both week-one demand and sign-up momentum in the late-window. Prime Video interleaves licensed titles with global acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data signals it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in back-catalog play, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays opportunistic about original films and festival acquisitions, dating horror entries near launch and eventizing rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a one-two of targeted theatrical exposure and accelerated platforming that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a per-project basis. The platform has been willing to pick up select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-driven packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for monthly activity when the genre conversation builds.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 pipeline with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is clear: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, recalibrated for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a cinema-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then turning to the holiday dates to go wider. That positioning has been successful for filmmaker-first horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception warrants. Anticipate 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 ignite evangelism that fuels their paid base.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all exploit cultural cachet. The trade-off, as ever, is brand wear. The practical approach is to present each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is teasing a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a buzzed-about director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and director-driven titles supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be framed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a stranded survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on legacy IP, the bundle is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps frame the model. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that maintained windows did not stop a day-date move from delivering when the brand was strong. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium formats. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel new when they angle differently and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to leave creative active without long breaks.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The craft conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that leans on aura and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership making room for cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for textured sound and a cold, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in deep-dive features and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a tone piece that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for tactile gnarliness, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and earns shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 offers a meta pivot that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will hit or miss on creature design and production design, which are ideal for fan-con activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that center disciplined sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is loaded. 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 somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the tonal variety ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late winter and spring seed summer. Scream 7 comes February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once favored genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 steps into 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 playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 serves ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest satisfies older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a pre-Halloween slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film claims October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Prestige-horror at year-end. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then activating critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to remain in discourse into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card burn.

Project briefs

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s digital partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

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 ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a check over here plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss claw to survive on a isolated island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. 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 TBA in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to horror, shaped by Cronin’s on-set craft and accumulating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 household haunting tale that refracts terror through a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: to be announced. Production: finished. Positioning: studio-grade and toplined ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A send-up revival that lampoons in-vogue horror tropes and true crime fixations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

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 ignites, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: TBA. Production: filming in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: The Further extends again, with a another family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: stalwart franchise piece in a friendly frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: pending. Logline: A fresh restart designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on survivalist horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: TBD. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: forthcoming. Production: proceeding. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

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

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026, why now

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that downshifted or recalendared in 2024 needed slack in the schedule. Horror can backfill quickly because scripts often are location-light, fewer large-scale visual effects runs, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming drops. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, controlled scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can lead a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four separate horror flavors will coexist across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The underdog chase 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 use those gaps. January could easily deliver the first left-field winner of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July leans brutal, 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 stack through the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, disciplined footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, soundscape, and imagery that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Lined Up To Scare

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is IP strength where it matters, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios track how and when scares land. 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, cut sharp trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.