Ancient Horror Emerges within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a pulse pounding horror thriller, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This chilling supernatural nightmare movie from author / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, unleashing an forgotten malevolence when newcomers become conduits in a hellish experiment. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, video-sharing site YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango on-demand.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing tale of struggle and forgotten curse that will remodel scare flicks this ghoul season. Directed by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic screenplay follows five characters who come to stranded in a off-grid shack under the hostile manipulation of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a millennia-old scriptural evil. Anticipate to be absorbed by a big screen experience that unites raw fear with timeless legends, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a iconic fixture in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that norm is radically shifted when the presences no longer come outside the characters, but rather from their core. This echoes the most hidden dimension of each of them. The result is a enthralling identity crisis where the tension becomes a intense confrontation between good and evil.


In a desolate natural abyss, five figures find themselves caught under the ominous force and inhabitation of a mysterious character. As the group becomes unresisting to evade her will, isolated and targeted by presences unnamable, they are cornered to encounter their emotional phantoms while the deathwatch brutally pushes forward toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion rises and bonds erode, urging each soul to scrutinize their true nature and the notion of liberty itself. The hazard mount with every beat, delivering a scare-fueled ride that weaves together demonic fright with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to explore primitive panic, an entity before modern man, channeling itself through soul-level flaws, and testing a will that forces self-examination when volition is erased.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something darker than pain. She is insensitive until the control shifts, and that transformation is terrifying because it is so raw.”

Platform Access

*Young & Cursed* will be unleashed for viewing beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—making sure horror lovers no matter where they are can witness this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, published to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has racked up over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be streamed globally, spreading the horror to horror fans worldwide.


Mark your calendar for this cinematic descent into hell. Watch *Young & Cursed* this All Hallows’ kickoff to acknowledge these chilling revelations about the mind.


For behind-the-scenes access, extra content, and promotions via the production team, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across entertainment pages and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s tipping point: 2025 in focus stateside slate fuses primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, alongside Franchise Rumbles

Across grit-forward survival fare infused with mythic scripture as well as canon extensions and focused festival visions, 2025 appears poised to be horror’s most layered paired with tactically planned year since the mid-2010s.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. Top studios bookend the months with franchise anchors, simultaneously streamers load up the fall with discovery plays alongside legend-coded dread. In the indie lane, indie storytellers is carried on the afterglow of 2024’s record festival wave. With Halloween holding the peak, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, and in 2025, slates are opening January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are hungry, studios are calculated, thus 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige terror resurfaces

The top end is active. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 capitalizes.

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, but a crisp modern milieu. Directed by Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this telling braids lycanthropy with a family meltdown. The curse reads as bodily and relational, about spouses, parents, and people. targeting mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it moves like barn born dread with razor satire. Behind the grin, it unpacks local hysteria, generational chasms, and crowd justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, the Warner lot launches the swan song within its surest horror brand: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Ed and Lorraine Warren return with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re boards, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: vintage toned fear, trauma foregrounded, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, thickens the animatronic pantheon, bridging teens and legacy players. It hits in December, anchoring horror’s winter tail.

SVOD Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Posting late summer theatrically then fall streaming, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a tight space body horror vignette pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story with Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

A handful of other streaming indies hover in the wings: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed emerges as a rare mix, tight in frame and epic in resonance. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the arc centers on five strangers who wake inside a backcountry cabin, beneath Kyra’s command, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

This fear is psychologically driven, pulsing with primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. 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 clever angle. No bloated mythology. No brand fatigue. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born, Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF still seed what horror becomes in six to twelve months. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW lifted Clown in a Cornfield and put microbudget hauntings into market talk. 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. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Series Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy entries present stronger and more purposeful this time.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Breaking with earlier shading, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, fake blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. The debut’s viral plus streaming heat gives Universal reason to press the bet.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. If framed properly, it could echo The Hunger Games for adult horror.

Other reboots and sequels, Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, are scattered across the calendar, most waiting for strategic windows or last minute acquisitions.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
From Lilith in Young & Cursed across to Aztec curses in Whistle, slates mine ancient texts and symbols. It is not nostalgia, it is re owning pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror swings back
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation serve as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming exclusives sharpen their bite
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Entries like Weapons and Sinners get event treatment, not inventory.

Festival buzz converts to leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not shrinking in theaters, but it is becoming more curated.

What’s Next: Fall crush plus winter X factor

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. 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 trick lies in diverse menus finding segmented crowds, not single title bets. The play is not Get Out replication, it is long life horror past theaters.



The next terror Year Ahead: follow-ups, universe starters, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The brand-new scare calendar stacks up front with a January wave, then extends through June and July, and continuing into the year-end corridor, braiding IP strength, novel approaches, and savvy calendar placement. The big buyers and platforms are betting on lean spends, exclusive theatrical windows first, and viral-minded pushes that turn genre titles into culture-wide discussion.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The genre has become the predictable release in release strategies, a vertical that can grow when it resonates and still hedge the risk when it doesn’t. After 2023 proved to strategy teams that modestly budgeted horror vehicles can own the national conversation, 2024 extended the rally with director-led heat and stealth successes. The momentum translated to 2025, where revived properties and festival-grade titles underscored there is a lane for a spectrum, from continued chapters to director-led originals that carry overseas. The upshot for the 2026 slate is a calendar that is strikingly coherent across distributors, with intentional bunching, a combination of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a refocused focus on theatrical windows that increase tail monetization on premium video on demand and SVOD.

Executives say the category now works like a wildcard on the distribution slate. The genre can launch on almost any weekend, provide a simple premise for ad units and TikTok spots, and exceed norms with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday previews and sustain through the week two if the movie connects. On the heels of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 mapping telegraphs belief in that equation. The year commences with a heavy January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for balance, while reserving space for a autumn push that stretches into spooky season and past Halloween. The calendar also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streamers that can launch in limited release, generate chatter, and scale up at the precise moment.

A reinforcing pattern is series management across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just pushing another chapter. They are working to present lineage with a sense of event, whether that is a brandmark that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that reconnects a next entry to a original cycle. At the simultaneously, the directors behind the most anticipated originals are championing on-set craft, physical gags and concrete locations. That mix provides the 2026 slate a strong blend of known notes and surprise, this content which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount marks the early tempo with two prominent plays that cover both tonal poles. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the focus, marketing it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach telegraphs a legacy-leaning campaign without looping the last two entries’ family thread. Plan for a rollout anchored in legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a staggered trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is theatrical via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back 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 partners for the first time since the early 2000s, a campaign lever the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase general-audience talk through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick shifts to whatever shapes the meme cycle that spring.

Universal has three specific strategies. SOULM8TE launches January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The core idea is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man sets up an digital partner that becomes a lethal partner. The date lines it up at the front of a packed window, with Universal’s promo team likely to revisit off-kilter promo beats and snackable content that fuses attachment and dread.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under code names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a title drop to become an PR pop closer to the early tease. The timing gives Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has owned before. His projects are positioned as event films, with a teaser with minimal detail and a second trailer wave that shape mood without giving away the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives the studio room to maximize 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, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub in the lead. The franchise has proven that a gnarly, hands-on effects strategy can feel premium on a disciplined budget. Position this as a grime-caked summer horror shot that spotlights global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most international territories.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio lines up two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film hits August 21, 2026, maintaining a dependable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch progresses. The studio has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil steps back in what Sony is billing as a fresh restart 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 charge to serve both players and fresh viewers. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around lore, and practical creature work, elements that can increase premium format interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, sets a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror characterized by immersive craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. The distributor has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a promissory note in the auteur as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is strong.

Platform lanes and windowing

Windowing plans in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre slate transition to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a structure that expands both week-one demand and trial spikes in the downstream. Prime Video blends library titles with worldwide buys and limited runs in theaters when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu lean on their strengths in deep cuts, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and handpicked rows to keep attention on the horror cume. Netflix retains agility about own-slate titles and festival buys, slotting horror entries with shorter lead times and staging as events arrivals with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of limited theatrical footprints and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps a case-by-case stance on horror on a situational basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to purchase select projects with top-tier auteurs or star-led packages, then give them a select cinema run in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still benefits from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for subscriber stickiness when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is structuring a 2026 track with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The sell is straightforward: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, refined for modern mix and grade. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has flagged a standard theatrical run for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the ferocious series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the autumn weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, curating the rollout through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then deploying the December frame to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for elevated genre with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not finalized many 2026 slots in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A solid projection is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception drives. Look for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited runs to spark the evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By skew, the 2026 slate bends toward the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding relationship and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a continental coloration from a rising filmmaker. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment spins fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries deliver 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, features Rachel McAdams in a stranded survival premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a precise, unnerving tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is comforting enough to drive advance ticketing and preview-night crowds.

Comps from the last three years contextualize the approach. In 2023, a theatrical-first model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror outperformed in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they change perspective and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which extends January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters lensed back-to-back, allows marketing to bridge entries through protagonists and motifs and to sustain campaign assets without doldrums.

Aesthetic and craft notes

The creative meetings behind the 2026 entries forecast a continued shift toward in-camera, locale-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that complements the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. The push will likely that foregrounds mood and dread rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting tight cost control.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in long-lead press and craft coverage before rolling out a tone piece that trades on atmosphere over plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and creates shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a meta-horror reset that centers its original star. Resident Evil will fly or stall on creature and environment design, which align with convention floor stunts and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that accent pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that sing on PLF.

How the year maps out

January is packed. Universal’s 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 atmospheric change-up amid big-brand pushes. The month finishes 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 stiff, but the range of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 hits February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was home to genre counterprogramming and now sustains big openers. The 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 underlines contrasts. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 unleashes red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film locks October 23 and will command cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely amplified by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Christmas prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can work in holiday corridor when packaged as craft prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, slow-rolling, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card redemption.

Project briefs

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 challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A widowed man’s AI companion turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot completed 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 enlarges the frame beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult coalesces in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige zombie continuation.

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 be swallowed by a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished and theatrical on deck. Positioning: ambience-forward 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 hard-edged boss claw to survive on a far-flung island as the pecking order inverts and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles not disclosed in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to nightmare, grounded in Cronin’s in-camera craft and slow-bloom dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting tale that mediates the fear via a minor’s shifting internal vantage. Rating: TBD. Production: post-ready. Positioning: studio-crafted and celebrity-led 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 satire sequel that satirizes contemporary horror memes and true-crime buzz. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 production window. 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 bursts, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further widens again, with a fresh family lashed to residual nightmares. Rating: forthcoming. Production: targeting a summer lensing window for late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an stress on classic survival-horror tone over pyrotechnic spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: undetermined. Production: ongoing. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

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 language and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 standard theatrical approach before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why the moment is 2026

Three workable forces frame this lineup. First, production that eased or recalendared in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can occupy those holes swiftly because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale VFX set pieces, and shorter 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 overdelivered vs. straight-to-streaming releases. Third, viral talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. The first stretch of 2026 sees fewer family and superhero logjams, creating valuable space for genre entries that can lead a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will trade weekends across five weekends, which permits distinct conversations to flourish. Summer provides the other window. The spoof can draft behind animation and action in early summer, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Money matters, ratings, and surprise hits

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-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 capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer 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.

How the year flows for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers cadence and diversity. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April brings back a Universal monster, May and June provide a one-two spectral pairing for date nights and group outings, July gets gnarly, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing materiality, aural design, and framing 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 Is Well Positioned

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is franchise muscle where it helps, auteur intent where it matters, 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 late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the chills sell the seats.