Age-old Dread Surfaces in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a chilling chiller, debuting Oct 2025 on major platforms

An eerie ghostly nightmare movie from literary architect / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, liberating an timeless evil when unrelated individuals become tools in a satanic ordeal. Going live this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking story of struggle and forgotten curse that will resculpt scare flicks this spooky time. Produced by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this gritty and claustrophobic fearfest follows five strangers who emerge confined in a remote cabin under the malignant rule of Kyra, a female presence consumed by a time-worn religious nightmare. Anticipate to be drawn in by a immersive event that harmonizes bodily fright with ancestral stories, premiering on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a long-standing trope in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is twisted when the forces no longer originate from elsewhere, but rather from their core. This suggests the grimmest aspect of the cast. The result is a enthralling cognitive warzone where the intensity becomes a unforgiving tug-of-war between purity and corruption.


In a forsaken outland, five friends find themselves contained under the ominous presence and inhabitation of a enigmatic woman. As the group becomes incapacitated to break her influence, isolated and targeted by creatures beyond reason, they are compelled to endure their darkest emotions while the time mercilessly ticks onward toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, anxiety escalates and associations disintegrate, driving each protagonist to challenge their values and the philosophy of autonomy itself. The pressure climb with every fleeting time, delivering a cinematic nightmare that connects otherworldly suspense with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to tap into basic terror, an spirit born of forgotten ages, channeling itself through our fears, and exposing a evil that questions who we are when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra called for internalizing something past sanity. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is bone-chilling because it is so raw.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be available for audience access beginning from October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—giving watchers across the world can get immersed in this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just dropped a new video trailer for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its initial teaser, which has earned over strong viewer count.


In addition to its domestic release, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has declared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, offering the tale to lovers of terror across nations.


Mark your calendar for this bone-rattling trip into the unknown. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to uncover these fearful discoveries about human nature.


For bonus footage, special features, and reveals via the production team, follow @YoungAndCursedMovie across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Modern horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar weaves old-world possession, Indie Shockers, together with legacy-brand quakes

Kicking off with endurance-driven terror suffused with legendary theology to canon extensions plus incisive indie visions, 2025 is shaping up as the most complex as well as intentionally scheduled year in a decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. leading studios lay down anchors via recognizable brands, in tandem digital services flood the fall with new voices set against scriptural shivers. On another front, the artisan tier is drafting behind the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Given Halloween is the centerpiece, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are surgical, accordingly 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The majors are assertive. If 2024 planted the seeds, 2025 scales the plan.

Universal’s distribution arm leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reimagined Wolf Man, not returning to the Gothic European hamlet, but a crisp modern milieu. Led by Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Eli Craig directs including Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s pipeline drops the final chapter of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Despite a known recipe, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

Then comes The Black Phone 2. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Derrickson returns to the helm, and those signature textures resurface: retro dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. The stakes escalate here, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding out the big ticket releases is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The new chapter enriches the lore, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It bows in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Firsts: Modest spend, serious shock

While theaters lean on names and sequels, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Directed by Zach Cregger anchored by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a 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 piece probes how love, envy, and self loathing become bodily rot. It toggles from love to slime, a staged slide into codependent hell. Absent a posted platform date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Also notable is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable starring Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it suggests There Will Be Blood blended with Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all tap into themes of grief, disappearance, and identity, often using horror as metaphor instead of spectacle.

Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed stands as a rare hybrid, both intimate in scope and mythic in reach. Authored and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the story trails five strangers who come to in a far off forest cabin, ruled by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Swerving the standard exorcism angle of Catholic rite and Latin word, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. This inside out possession reframes expectation and groups Young & Cursed with a rising current, intimate character dramas within genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. That is a savvy move. No swollen lore. No series drag. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain the hothouse where next season’s horror grows. And in 2025, they are acting more like launchpads than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens the fest with tropical body horror and critics cite Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge burner in Aztec code, should close with flame.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24 support plus satire of toxic fandom in a convention lockdown puts it on breakout watch.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool a familiar crop of grief steeped elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Series Horror: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

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

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

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With a precise angle, it could mirror The Hunger Games for adults in horror.

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

Key Trends

Mythic dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror does more than scare, it reminds that evil predates us.

Body horror swings back
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation now read as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Works such as Weapons and Sinners are positioned as events, not filler.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical lanes are trust falls
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

What’s Next: Fall pileup, winter curveball

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper will scrap for air. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. When the heavy hitters lean mythic, a last creature feature or exorcism can still fit.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The forthcoming 2026 scare year to come: Sequels, non-franchise titles, in tandem with A jammed Calendar designed for Scares

Dek The brand-new genre season clusters from the jump with a January traffic jam, thereafter extends through the summer months, and straight through the winter holidays, blending brand equity, fresh ideas, and savvy counterweight. Studios and streamers are doubling down on responsible budgets, cinema-first plans, and social-fueled campaigns that transform these releases into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

Horror filmmaking has turned into the steady move in programming grids, a space that can lift when it resonates and still insulate the floor when it underperforms. After 2023 re-taught studio brass that responsibly budgeted entries can dominate the zeitgeist, 2024 sustained momentum with buzzy auteur projects and unexpected risers. The upswing fed into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and elevated films made clear there is demand for different modes, from franchise continuations to director-led originals that translate worldwide. The combined impact for 2026 is a run that reads highly synchronized across players, with obvious clusters, a blend of recognizable IP and original hooks, and a reinvigorated strategy on release windows that feed downstream value on premium video on demand and streaming.

Schedulers say the category now functions as a plug-and-play option on the slate. The genre can arrive on numerous frames, offer a clear pitch for teasers and short-form placements, and punch above weight with demo groups that show up on early shows and return through the follow-up frame if the release hits. In the wake of a production delay era, the 2026 pattern underscores faith in that setup. The slate kicks off with a stacked January corridor, then leans on spring and early summer for alternate plays, while leaving room for a late-year stretch that extends to the Halloween corridor and into early November. The grid also reflects the ongoing integration of arthouse labels and streamers that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and roll out at the optimal moment.

An added macro current is brand management across linked properties and storied titles. Studio teams are not just turning out another chapter. They are setting up lineage with a must-see charge, whether that is a graphic identity that announces a new tone or a star attachment that connects a next entry to a vintage era. At the simultaneously, the visionaries behind the headline-grabbing originals are returning to tactile craft, on-set effects and grounded locations. That convergence yields the 2026 slate a strong blend of comfort and shock, which is what works overseas.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount leads early with two front-of-slate releases that run the tonal gamut. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the center, steering it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-forward chapter. Filming is in progress in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a nostalgia-forward mode without covering again the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push anchored in classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a promo sequence hitting late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are paired again, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will spotlight. As a summer relief option, this one will generate mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format enabling quick redirects to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete projects. SOULM8TE bows January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is tight, tragic, and concept-forward: a grieving man activates an artificial companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a thick month, with the Universal machine likely to iterate on strange in-person beats and quick hits that threads love and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio schedules an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under internal titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele projects are sold as director events, with a teaser that holds back and a second trailer wave that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The pre-Halloween slot lets the studio to command 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, links with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub anchoring. The franchise has made clear that a tactile, on-set effects led style can feel high-value on a mid-range budget. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror surge that emphasizes overseas performance, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio books two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, holding a consistent supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what Sony is positioning as a from-the-ground-up reboot 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 explicit mandate to serve both longtime followers and fresh viewers. The fall slot hands Sony window to build assets around narrative world, and creature effects, elements that can drive format premiums and fan-culture participation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, anchors a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by textural authenticity and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Platform windowing in 2026 run on established tracks. Universal’s releases shift to copyright after a big-screen and PVOD window, a ladder that fortifies both initial urgency and subscription bumps horror in the late-window. Prime Video blends outside acquisitions with international acquisitions and limited runs in theaters when the data backs it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in library pulls, using timely promos, genre hubs, and featured rows to increase tail value on the 2026 genre total. Netflix retains agility about Netflix films and festival acquisitions, finalizing horror entries closer to launch and coalescing around premieres with compressed campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of limited theatrical footprints and accelerated platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has indicated interest to secure select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a limited theatrical run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly activity when the genre conversation heats up.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 track with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, retooled for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an positive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, shepherding the title through festival season if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to widen. That positioning has delivered for filmmaker-driven genre with broader reach. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A sound expectation is a selection of late-summer and fall platformers that can broaden if reception justifies. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in concert, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 bends toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use name recognition. The potential drawback, as ever, is overexposure. The standing approach is to pitch each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is spotlighting character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a European tilt from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and talent-first projects keep the lungs full. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the bundle is steady enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

The last three-year set make sense of the template. In 2023, a theater-first model that respected streaming windows did not stop a day-and-date experiment from hitting when the brand was strong. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in large-format rooms. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel alive when they reframe POV and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to connect the chapters through character and theme and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The director conversations behind the 2026 entries point to a continued move toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-first approach he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film closed principal and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that elevates mood and dread rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership allowing cost precision.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a period English setting and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in craft journalism and department features before rolling out a mood teaser that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is geared for practical nastiness, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and produces shareable screening reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on monster aesthetics and world-building, which fit with booth activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that benefit on big speakers.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is full. 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 gloomy counterbalance amid macro-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 meaningful, but the tonal variety affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure enables clean play for each if word of mouth carries.

Early-year through spring build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy restores a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now supports big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 flows into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer spreads the field. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can deliver next get redirected here to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have rotated off PLF.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil lines up after September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a minimalist tease strategy and limited disclosures that prioritize concept over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a statement that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, rolling out carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can open up in the first week of 2027 while benefiting from holiday season and gift-card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting on a rolling basis as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to confront a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genome. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy-forward with modern snap.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s digital partner unfolds into something fatal and romantic. 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult forms in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot 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 comes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to face a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss battle to survive on a far-flung island as the control balance shifts and fear crawls. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-led survival horror from a master director.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles confidential in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fright, based on Cronin’s in-camera craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A intimate haunting chiller that pipes the unease through a child’s uneven subjective view. Rating: TBA. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers returning creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that skewers present-day genre chatter and true-crime obsessions. Rating: TBD. Production: cameras due to roll fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: principal photography in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: unrevealed for now. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a new clan lashed to past horrors. Rating: TBD. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: awaiting public disclosure. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to reconstitute the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-centric bombast. Rating: not yet rated. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: undetermined. Production: in progress. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

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 bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why 2026 makes sense

Three pragmatic forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that downshifted or rearranged in 2024 needed latitude on the slate. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more methodical about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will lean on clippable moments from test screenings, curated scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will stack across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody leverages early family and action lifts, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Budget discipline, rating paths, sleeper math

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for strong PLF footprints 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 search for sleepers continues in Q1, where low-to-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 press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first quiet breakout of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

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

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. 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 gets visceral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a wintry, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors value the spacing. Horror delivers Thursday preview surges, tight deployments, 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 materiality, sound field, and image-making that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is defined. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one near-deadline boutique buy join the party. For now, the job is simple, produce clean trailers, hold the mystery, and let the frights sell the seats.