Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed reignites age-old dread, a fear soaked shocker, premiering Oct 2025 across top digital platforms

A blood-curdling spiritual terror film from author / cinematic mind Andrew Chiaramonte, awakening an timeless force when unfamiliar people become instruments in a dark ritual. Premiering October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, Google’s YouTube, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing narrative of struggle and primeval wickedness that will remodel terror storytelling this Halloween season. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and gothic feature follows five lost souls who wake up imprisoned in a remote cabin under the menacing will of Kyra, a young woman inhabited by a time-worn ancient fiend. Ready yourself to be enthralled by a narrative spectacle that intertwines gut-punch terror with mythic lore, dropping on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Supernatural inhabitation has been a recurring tradition in horror films. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is turned on its head when the beings no longer appear outside their bodies, but rather within themselves. This marks the most sinister shade of every character. The result is a psychologically brutal inner struggle where the intensity becomes a intense tug-of-war between virtue and vice.


In a abandoned forest, five individuals find themselves isolated under the fiendish sway and possession of a mysterious apparition. As the victims becomes unresisting to escape her command, exiled and stalked by unknowns impossible to understand, they are forced to reckon with their inner demons while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks toward their death.


In *Young & Cursed*, tension deepens and relationships crack, coercing each character to challenge their character and the structure of autonomy itself. The tension magnify with every breath, delivering a nerve-wracking journey that fuses mystical fear with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel deep fear, an entity rooted in antiquity, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and challenging a evil that erodes the self when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Channeling Kyra was centered on something beneath mortal despair. She is uninformed until the invasion happens, and that shift is terrifying because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be released for public screening beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—delivering watchers anywhere can face this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a continuation to its first trailer, which has seen over a hundred thousand impressions.


In addition to its US/Canada launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has revealed that *Young & Cursed* will also be shown overseas, making the film to fans of fear everywhere.


Witness this soul-jarring exploration of dread. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horrific release to see these ghostly lessons about existence.


For film updates, director cuts, and press updates from inside the story, follow @YoungAndCursed across Instagram and Twitter and visit youngandcursed.com.





Current horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. Slate braids together legend-infused possession, art-house nightmares, paired with Franchise Rumbles

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare drawn from scriptural legend and extending to canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered combined with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. studio majors stabilize the year with established lines, even as OTT services load up the fall with new perspectives plus old-world menace. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the kinetic energy from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween holding the peak, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. A packed September to October corridor has become a rite of passage, but this year, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are precise, hence 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

Studio Roadmap and Mini-Major Pulse: Premium dread reemerges

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 set the base, 2025 presses the advantage.

the Universal camp fires the first shot with a headline swing: a newly envisioned Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell fronted by Christopher Abbott with Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. landing in mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Helmed by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

Toward summer’s end, the Warner Bros. banner drops the final chapter from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, director Michael Chaves reportedly leans into a mournful, interior tone for the swan song. It sits in early September, securing daylight before October saturation.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Scott Derrickson is back, and those signature textures resurface: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, along with eerie supernatural rules. The bar is raised this go, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The follow up digs further into canon, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, bridging teens and legacy players. It arrives in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, platforms are embracing risk, and engagement climbs.

An especially bold streamer bet is Weapons, a cold trail horror omnibus that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Guided by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a two hander body horror spiral led by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Fixed in a remote let as a weekend curdles, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Even without a formal platform date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also rising is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The project looks at American religious trauma under a supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Bowing October 2 on major streamers, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the work follows five strangers rousing in a remote timber cabin, under Kyra’s control, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As dusk gives way to night, Kyra’s grip intensifies, a violating force plundering fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Ducking the exorcism default of Catholic ritual and Latin text, this one reaches back to something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. Possession that blooms from within, not without, inverts the trope and places Young & Cursed within a growing horror trend, intimate character studies wrapped in genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is a smart play. No bloated canon. No continuity burden. Bare psychological dread, trim and tense, designed for binge and breath patterns. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF serve as nurseries for near future horror. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

The Fantastic Fest slate for horror is strong this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance should deliver grief heavy elevated horror again, where Tribeca’s genre program draws urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. That wreath is now a starting gun, not the finish.

Heritage Horror: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

Then there is The Long Walk, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s earliest and most harrowing works, helmed by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. 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.

Emerging Currents

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed through Aztec curses in Whistle, teams draw on ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror exceeds jolts, it insists evil is ancient.

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

SVOD originals harden up
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. A horror film without a festival strategy in 2025 risks disappearing.

Big screen is a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror keeps theatrical presence, via curation.

Season Ahead: Autumn Overload and the Winter Wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons all stacked across September and October, the fall is downright saturated. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

What matters is slate breadth meeting fractured audiences, not one crown jewel. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The new scare release year: returning titles, universe starters, And A stacked Calendar tailored for shocks

Dek: The incoming genre slate builds at the outset with a January traffic jam, and then stretches through summer corridors, and continuing into the year-end corridor, blending brand heft, novel approaches, and savvy counterprogramming. Studio marketers and platforms are embracing efficient budgets, theatrical leads, and platform-native promos that turn genre releases into culture-wide discussion.

Horror momentum into 2026

The horror sector has turned into the consistent option in release strategies, a category that can break out when it lands and still cushion the losses when it under-delivers. After 2023 re-taught leaders that efficiently budgeted pictures can steer social chatter, the following year held pace with festival-darling auteurs and stealth successes. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where reboots and elevated films showed there is an opening for several lanes, from series extensions to filmmaker-driven originals that translate worldwide. The takeaway for the 2026 slate is a calendar that shows rare alignment across the industry, with defined corridors, a combination of marquee IP and new packages, and a revived priority on exhibition windows that fuel later windows on premium on-demand and platforms.

Schedulers say the category now performs as a utility player on the grid. Horror can launch on most weekends, supply a grabby hook for ad units and UGC-friendly snippets, and over-index with audiences that show up on Thursday nights and hold through the second weekend if the feature pays off. In the wake of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 configuration telegraphs assurance in that dynamic. The calendar starts with a heavy January stretch, then primes spring and early summer for off-slot scheduling, while holding room for a autumn push that stretches into All Hallows period and into November. The calendar also reflects the greater integration of specialty arms and digital platforms that can develop over weeks, create conversation, and broaden at the right moment.

An added macro current is IP cultivation across connected story worlds and veteran brands. Studio teams are not just producing another follow-up. They are setting up continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a ensemble decision that ties a latest entry to a initial period. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the high-profile originals are championing on-set craft, practical effects and specific settings. That Young & Cursed convergence offers 2026 a smart balance of assurance and newness, which is the formula for international play.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount establishes early momentum with two high-profile releases that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director seat and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a baton pass and a rootsy character-forward chapter. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture points to a roots-evoking treatment without replaying the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Plan for a rollout leaning on heritage visuals, initial cast looks, and a trailer cadence slated for late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 joining up again, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will feature. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will chase wide buzz through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format permitting quick updates to whatever leads the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear bets. SOULM8TE hits January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The logline is tight, loss-driven, and commercial: a grieving man adopts an digital partner that turns into a fatal companion. The date locates it at the front of a thick month, with Universal’s marketing likely to reprise strange in-person beats and quick hits that threads longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under placeholder labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a name unveil to become an event moment closer to the first trailer. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film secures October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. His entries are treated as event films, with a concept-forward tease and a subsequent trailers that define feel without revealing the concept. The late-October frame opens a lane to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, aligns with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has repeatedly shown that a flesh-and-blood, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a controlled budget. Expect a grime-caked summer horror charge that spotlights offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most non-U.S. markets.

Sony’s horror bench is loaded. The studio sets two brand plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, keeping a steady supernatural brand on the board while the spin-off branch builds quietly. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil restarts in what the studio is calling a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a focus to serve both loyalists and new audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign pieces around setting detail, and creature design, elements that can stoke large-format demand and fan-forward engagement.

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 maintains Eggers’ run of period horror defined by immersive craft and dialect, this time orbiting lycan myth. Focus Features has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can scale widely if early reception is enthusiastic.

Where the platforms fit in

Windowing plans in 2026 run on predictable routes. The Universal horror run move to copyright after a theatrical-first then PVOD phase, a tiered path that fortifies both FOMO and sub growth in the back half. Prime Video balances third-party pickups with global acquisitions and targeted theatrical runs when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library engagement, using editorial spots, horror hubs, and featured rows to extend momentum on lifetime take. check over here Netflix keeps flexible about first-party entries and festival buys, slotting horror entries tight to release and coalescing around releases with condensed plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, deploys a one-two of limited theatrical footprints and short jumps to platform that turns chatter to conversion. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before using genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to evaluate horror on a curated basis. The platform has signaled readiness to buy select projects with prestige directors or marquee packages, then give them a modest theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to gather buzz before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a key factor for platform stickiness when the genre conversation peaks.

The specialty lanes and indie surprises

Cineverse is steadily assembling a 2026 runway 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 angle is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, updated for modern sonics and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has suggested a cinema-first plan for Legacy, an promising marker for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors needing R-rated alternatives in the late stretch.

Focus will work the director lane with Werwulf, managing the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to expand. That positioning has been successful for prestige horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not firmed many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, horror and Cannes. A safe bet is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception drives. Do not be surprised by an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using mini theatrical to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Franchise entries versus originals

By tilt, 2026 leans in favor of the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all activate marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a tone reset. Paramount is emphasizing character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is positioning a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is centering a French-accented approach from a fresh helmer. Those choices prove meaningful when the audience has so many options and social sentiment turns quickly.

Non-franchise titles and director-first projects add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be treated as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival-thriller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a lean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an severe tone. Even when the title is not based on existing IP, the packaging is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that honored streaming windows did not deter a same-day experiment from thriving when the brand was compelling. In 2024, precision craft horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel renewed when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. 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 two-film strategy, with chapters lensed back-to-back, provides the means for marketing to cross-link entries through cast and motif and to leave creative active without hiatuses.

Production craft signals

The shop talk behind the 2026 slate telegraph a continued lean toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that accords with the practical-craft ethos he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Expect a campaign that elevates atmosphere and fear rather than bombast, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has characterized Werwulf as the bleakest project he has tackled, which tracks with a Middle Ages setting and era-true language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a icy, primal tone on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in behind-the-scenes pieces and guild coverage before rolling out a atmospheric tease that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has delivered for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that lands overseas in red-band trailers and spurs shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta refresh that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature work and production design, which match well with fan conventions and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theatrical pitch feel primary. Look for trailers that accent surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is heavy. 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 somber counterpoint amid heftier brand moves. The month wraps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tonal variety opens lanes for all, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring tee up summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with fan warmth. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once served genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 leads 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 lighter and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest caters to older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have finished their premium pass.

Late-season stretch leans IP. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously landed. Resident Evil slides in after September 18, a late-September window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely backed by a mystery-driven teaser strategy and limited information drops that favor idea over plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to extend talk into January. If the film earns with critics, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and card redemption.

One-sentence dossiers

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting TBA in phases as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to oppose a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s essence. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A bereaved man’s artificial companion evolves into something romantically lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal 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 broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: prestige apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man heads back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a changing reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. 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 demanding boss fight to survive on a desolate island as the power balance of power swivels and paranoia creeps in. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to fear, based on Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: iconic monster return with auteur mark.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting story that explores the chill of a child’s wobbly point of view. Rating: rating pending. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-grade and star-fronted supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers rejoining on the creative side. Logline: {A genre lampoon that riffs on in-vogue horror tropes and true-crime crazes. Rating: rating forthcoming. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: mass-audience summer option.

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 detonates, with an global twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: R-rated franchise charge tuned for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBD per campaign. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a different family bound to old terrors. Rating: forthcoming. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to recalibrate the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on pure survival horror over set-piece spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: developing against a fixed date. Positioning: source-faithful reboot with four-quadrant path.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing. 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 era-accurate language and elemental dread. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige-leaning holiday genre with crafts potential.

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 theaters-first plan ahead of platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why the 2026 timing works

Three practical forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that decelerated or re-slotted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often demand fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more disciplined about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently surpassed straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on turnkey scare beats from test screenings, curated scare clips synced to Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that double as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

A fourth factor is programming math. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four horror varieties will coexist across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

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

The underdog chase continues in Q1, where cost-efficient 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 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. Plan on a solid PVOD window generally, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April revives a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit 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 cold, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers regular Thursday spikes, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can credibly make the premium-screen case, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, soundcraft, and visuals 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 Shapes Up Strong

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand gravity where needed, creative ambition where it counts, 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the frights sell the seats.