Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed releases mythic darkness, a fear soaked thriller, debuting Oct 2025 on leading streamers

This hair-raising supernatural horror tale from scriptwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an mythic dread when drifters become tools in a supernatural experiment. Available on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango streaming.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – get ready for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of living through and mythic evil that will reimagine fear-driven cinema this fall. Produced by rising horror auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and shadowy fearfest follows five lost souls who suddenly rise isolated in a far-off lodge under the ominous power of Kyra, a central character occupied by a two-thousand-year-old sacred-era entity. Arm yourself to be drawn in by a audio-visual journey that integrates bodily fright with spiritual backstory, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Spiritual takeover has been a iconic theme in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is inverted when the monsters no longer emerge beyond the self, but rather through their own souls. This marks the deepest version of the group. The result is a psychologically brutal mental war where the plotline becomes a unyielding fight between right and wrong.


In a barren natural abyss, five youths find themselves stuck under the sinister grip and infestation of a obscure female presence. As the survivors becomes incapacitated to break her dominion, stranded and hunted by unknowns impossible to understand, they are confronted to acknowledge their soulful dreads while the timeline mercilessly runs out toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, distrust swells and relationships splinter, driving each survivor to rethink their self and the structure of volition itself. The tension amplify with every fleeting time, delivering a chilling narrative that fuses otherworldly suspense with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my purpose was to tap into elemental fright, an darkness older than civilization itself, embedding itself in psychological breaks, and dealing with a darkness that redefines identity when consciousness is fragmented.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra called for internalizing something past sanity. She is clueless until the haunting manifests, and that transition is deeply unsettling because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for audiences beginning October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—offering watchers in all regions can survive this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first trailer, which has been viewed over six-figure audience.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, delivering the story to horror fans worldwide.


Experience this gripping descent into hell. Tune into *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to see these unholy truths about our species.


For film updates, on-set glimpses, and insider scoops from inside the story, follow @YACMovie across social media and visit our horror hub.





Current horror’s pivotal crossroads: 2025 for genre fans U.S. calendar integrates myth-forward possession, independent shockers, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Moving from endurance-driven terror rooted in primordial scripture and onward to returning series alongside cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 stands to become the genre’s most multifaceted plus strategic year in the past ten years.

It is crowded, and also meticulously arranged. top-tier distributors bookend the months using marquee IP, at the same time SVOD players crowd the fall with emerging auteurs together with scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, indie storytellers is propelled by the afterglow from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, yet in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 is positioned to be the most designed season yet.

Major and Mini-Major Maneuvers: The Return of Prestige Fear

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s distribution arm sets the tone with a marquee bet: a contemporary Wolf Man, eschewing a mist-shrouded old-world European town, but a sharp contemporary setting. Led by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. timed 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.

The spring frame introduces Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation reframed as lean dread. Helmed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial heat flags it as potent.

When summer fades, the Warner lot delivers the closing chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: 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. Even with a familiar chassis, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It posts in early September, creating cushion before October load.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Scott Derrickson is back, and the tone that worked before is intact: vintage toned fear, trauma driven plotting, with spooky supernatural reasoning. This pass pushes higher, with added layers to the “grabber” frame and long memory of loss.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, and targets both teens and thirtysomething fans of the original game. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Firsts: Tight funds, wide impact

While the big screen favors titles you know, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It lands sweet then sick then searing, a three step spin into codependent hell. While no platform has formally placed a date, it reads like an autumn stream lock.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga toplined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. 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 is a calculated bet. No swollen lore. No canon weight. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF function as launch beds for the coming year’s horror. In 2025, they behave more like launchpads than showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That title, with A24 backing, satirizes toxic fandom during a convention lockdown and is set to pop.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Sequels, Reboots, Reinventions

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 posts late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

Another headline is The Long Walk, adapting a grim early Stephen King piece, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it shows as a grim dystopian parable set in survival horror, a youth walk ending only in death. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

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 goes mainstream
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 reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival momentum becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Near Term Outlook: Fall saturation and a winter joker

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

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 locks December, while a late surprise on a platform remains possible. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

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



The oncoming chiller slate: next chapters, fresh concepts, paired with A Crowded Calendar designed for shocks

Dek The brand-new scare season packs right away with a January traffic jam, before it unfolds through the summer months, and deep into the late-year period, weaving legacy muscle, inventive spins, and savvy calendar placement. Studios with streamers are betting on lean spends, theatrical-first rollouts, and influencer-ready assets that elevate these releases into national conversation.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror sector has emerged as the surest swing in distribution calendars, a vertical that can scale when it lands and still safeguard the drag when it does not. After 2023 proved to greenlighters that lean-budget entries can galvanize the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with director-led heat and slow-burn breakouts. The run fed into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers underscored there is space for a variety of tones, from franchise continuations to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The sum for 2026 is a run that is strikingly coherent across distributors, with clear date clusters, a combination of known properties and new pitches, and a reinvigorated attention on release windows that fuel later windows on PVOD and subscription services.

Executives say the genre now works like a utility player on the grid. Horror can kick off on almost any weekend, offer a grabby hook for ad units and TikTok spots, and overperform with viewers that come out on Thursday previews and maintain momentum through the second weekend if the film works. Following a work stoppage lag, the 2026 configuration telegraphs belief in that approach. The year rolls out with a crowded January band, then taps spring and early summer for audience offsets, while clearing room for a autumn push that pushes into late October and beyond. The program also includes the continuing integration of indie distributors and OTT outlets that can launch in limited release, fuel WOM, and broaden at the proper time.

A further high-level trend is brand strategy across linked properties and legacy franchises. The companies are not just pushing another continuation. They are working to present threaded continuity with a headline quality, whether that is a logo package that announces a reframed mood or a cast configuration that ties a fresh chapter to a original cycle. At the in tandem, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are championing real-world builds, real effects and vivid settings. That fusion gives 2026 a confident blend of assurance and shock, which is how the genre sells abroad.

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

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent entries that sit at tonal extremes. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the lead, setting it up as both a succession moment and a origin-leaning character-forward chapter. Production is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach suggests a nostalgia-forward mode without replaying the last two entries’ Carpenter sisters arc. Look for a marketing run driven by heritage visuals, first-look character reveals, and a tiered teaser plan targeting late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

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 back on screen, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative contributors for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will double down on. As a summer contrast play, this one will go after general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format supporting quick switches to whatever owns pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is tight, melancholic, and commercial: a grieving man brings home an AI companion that unfolds into a deadly partner. The date locates it at the front of a stacked January, with marketing at Universal likely to echo creepy live activations and short-form creative that fuses affection and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a branding reveal to become an earned moment closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Finishing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are positioned as marquee events, with a hinting teaser and a second trailer wave that signal tone without plot the concept. The spooky-season slot offers Universal room to own pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then leverage 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 leads, get redirected here with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has long shown that a flesh-and-blood, prosthetic-heavy style can feel premium on a middle budget. Frame it as a blood-soaked summer horror charge that emphasizes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, sustaining a trusty supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch continues to develop. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan plants it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is presenting as a new take for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a foundational part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both loyalists and novices. The fall slot provides the studio time to build campaign pieces around canon, and monster craft, elements that can boost premium format interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film advances the filmmaker’s run of period horror grounded in immersive craft and historical speech, this time set against lycan legends. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s genre slate shift to copyright after a cinema and premium rental phase, a ladder that maximizes both initial urgency and platform bumps in the after-window. Prime Video combines third-party pickups with worldwide entries and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in catalog engagement, using timely promos, genre hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on the annual genre haul. Netflix keeps flexible about Netflix films and festival additions, dating horror entries toward the drop and elevating as drops arrivals with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a one-two of precision releases and swift platform pivots that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a per-project basis. The platform has proven amenable to take on select projects with top-tier auteurs or star packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualifying rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation spikes.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 runway with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is clear: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a big-screen first plan for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late stretch.

Focus will push the auteur angle with Werwulf, curating the rollout through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the holiday slot to increase reach. That positioning has served the company well for filmmaker-first horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can expand if reception supports. Do not be surprised by 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 as a pair, using small theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their community.

Franchise entries versus originals

By number, the 2026 slate is weighted toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate name recognition. The watch-out, as ever, is staleness. The standing approach is to package each entry as a re-toned entry. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French-tinted vision from a new voice. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and talent-first projects 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, casts Rachel McAdams in a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the assembly is recognizable enough to translate curiosity into advance sales and Thursday previews.

Recent-year comps clarify the template. In 2023, a cinema-first model that respected streaming windows did not hamper a same-day experiment from working when the brand was big. In 2024, meticulous-craft horror outperformed in premium large format. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and stretch the story. 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 shot consecutively, gives leeway to marketing to relate entries through cast and motif and to hold creative in the market without dead zones.

Technique and craft currents

The production chatter behind this year’s genre suggest a continued tilt toward practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped photography and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that centers unease and texture rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft features before rolling out a tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for gristle and gore, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and produces shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta recalibration that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster realization and design, which work nicely for fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel necessary. Look for trailers that center razor sound, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that sing on PLF.

From winter to holidays

January is crowded. 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 brooding contrast amid big-brand pushes. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is credible, but the menu of tones opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure gives each runway for each if word of mouth endures.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reimagines a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s 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 heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a shroud-first teaser rhythm and limited plot reveals that elevate concept over story.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, slow-rolling, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can broaden in the first week of 2027 while building on holiday impulse and gift-card burn.

One-sentence dossiers

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s algorithmic partner grows into something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal completed for an early-year bow. Positioning: tech shocker with 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 widens the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot 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 returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to run into a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: mood-led 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 severe boss push to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Done. 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 renewed vision that returns the monster to terror, built on Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: legacy monster restart with director stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting chiller that toys with the terror of a child’s fragile perspective. Rating: to be announced. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-built and celebrity-led haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 cross-border twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBA. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family bound to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A ground-up reset designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an preference for classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: undetermined. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: game-grounded refresh with wider appeal.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, great post to read 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: underway. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

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 time-true diction and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: gearing up with December 25 frame. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

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

Why 2026, why now

Three hands-on forces organize this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work clippable moments from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, offering breathing room for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will cluster across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budgets and certifications, sleeper calculus

Budgets remain in the target range. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, 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 sleeper chase continues in Q1, where midrange-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 unexpected breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. 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 viewing year plays

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a banquet, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a back-to-back spirit play for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers predictable Thursday surges, optimized footprints, 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 tactility, sound, and visual design 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 Promising 2026

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shift. But the spine of 2026 horror is established. There is brand equity where it matters, new vision where it lands, 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-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, hold the mystery, and let the screams sell the seats.