Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a hair raising feature, rolling out October 2025 across premium platforms

This terrifying metaphysical suspense film from dramatist / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, unbinding an timeless evil when unfamiliar people become subjects in a supernatural conflict. Debuting this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nerve-wracking journey of overcoming and primordial malevolence that will remodel genre cinema this ghoul season. Crafted by rising director to watch Andrew Chiaramonte, this harrowing and cinematic feature follows five unknowns who find themselves confined in a remote shack under the menacing power of Kyra, a troubled woman occupied by a time-worn sacred-era entity. Be warned to be shaken by a visual journey that unites instinctive fear with mythic lore, landing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Cursed embodiment has been a time-honored trope in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is inverted when the monsters no longer emerge from an outside force, but rather from their core. This depicts the deepest side of the cast. The result is a psychologically brutal spiritual tug-of-war where the story becomes a intense conflict between right and wrong.


In a bleak terrain, five young people find themselves isolated under the possessive effect and overtake of a unidentified person. As the victims becomes powerless to oppose her influence, detached and tormented by spirits mind-shattering, they are made to endure their greatest panics while the deathwatch without pause runs out toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and partnerships splinter, pushing each character to reflect on their character and the idea of self-determination itself. The intensity mount with every beat, delivering a nightmarish journey that connects occult fear with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to dive into deep fear, an malevolence before modern man, emerging via psychological breaks, and navigating a power that challenges autonomy when agency is lost.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra meant evoking something deeper than fear. She is insensitive until the demon emerges, and that metamorphosis is eerie because it is so visceral.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon’s platform, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—ensuring watchers no matter where they are can be part of this paranormal experience.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new extended look for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has informed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, delivering the story to viewers around the world.


Avoid skipping this gripping ride through nightmares. Confront *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to explore these chilling revelations about free will.


For previews, production news, and press updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across your favorite networks and visit the movie’s homepage.





The horror genre’s watershed moment: calendar year 2025 U.S. calendar braids together primeval-possession lore, art-house nightmares, together with franchise surges

Running from endurance-driven terror drawn from near-Eastern lore to IP renewals paired with sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 stands to become the most stratified in tandem with calculated campaign year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. Major studios plant stakes across the year with known properties, even as OTT services flood the fall with discovery plays paired with ancestral chills. In parallel, the micro-to-mid budget ranks is carried on the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. With Halloween still the genre’s crown piece, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. That late Q3 to mid Q4 lane is the crucible, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are exacting, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

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

The majors are not coasting. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule sets the tone with an audacious swing: a reimagined Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. With Leigh Whannell at the helm with Christopher Abbott opposite Julia Garner, this pass grounds the lycanthropy in household collapse. The metamorphosis extends past flesh, into marriage, parenthood, and human hurt. timed for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Directed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it comes as grit laced American nightmare with sardonic edge. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Early reactions hint at fangs.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline launches the swan song from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves seems to angle for a plaintive, inward final note. It sets in early September, opening runway before October heat.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Planned for early summer, the October reposition reads assertive. Derrickson re engages, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: 70s style chill, trauma as narrative engine, and a cold supernatural calculus. The ante is higher this round, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The follow up digs further into canon, stretches the animatronic parade, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Originals: Slim budgets, major punch

While cinemas swing on series strength, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. Led by Zach Cregger fronted by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

Playing chamber scale is Together, a close quarters body horror study starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the script studies love with jealousy with self rejection turning into decay. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. With no dated platform window yet, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story featuring Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it mirrors There Will Be Blood meeting Let the Right One In. The work dissects American religious trauma using supernatural allegory. Initial test audience notes point to a buzzy streaming debut.

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

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Written and directed 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 the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The horror here is psychological but charged with primal myth. Not another exorcism story reliant on Catholic rite and Latin phrase, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith does not answer ceremony, she climbs through trauma, hush, and human fracture. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing 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 reads as sharp positioning. No overstuffed canon. No legacy baggage. Straight psychological chill, boxed and tight, aimed at the binge, pause, and pulse habits of streamers. Among spectacle, Young & Cursed might win by restraint, then release.

Festival Born and Buyer Ready

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

At midnight, entries like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You buzz for how they play, not only their names. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

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, with Tribeca’s genre menu reading urban, social, and surreal.

Festival playbooks now prize branding as much as discovery. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Long Running Lines: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The sequel reboot ecosystem reads stronger and more precise.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Imagine tiaras, smeared red, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, aiming to expand its techno horror mythology with new characters and new AI generated terrors. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Next comes The Long Walk, adapting one of Stephen King’s earliest, most harrowing works, led by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

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 dread mainstreams
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror resurges
Work like Together, Weapons, and Keeper revisit the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
Junk fill horror on platforms is receding. Platforms show up with budgets for scripts, directors, and campaigns. Debuts like Weapons and Sinners carry event framing, not content bins.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. A film minus festival planning in 2025 risks getting lost.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios save theaters for outperform prospects or IP farmers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

With Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons stacked into September and October, fall saturates. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Look for a pivot by one or more into early 2026 or to new platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. As mythic runs hot, a closing creature or exorcism could still arrive.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The upcoming scare Year Ahead: returning titles, standalone ideas, and also A brimming Calendar optimized for jolts

Dek The upcoming scare slate clusters up front with a January glut, before it flows through midyear, and pushing into the holiday frame, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

How the genre looks for 2026

The field has solidified as the consistent play in distribution calendars, a segment that can expand when it hits and still limit the drag when it under-delivers. After 2023 signaled to strategy teams that lean-budget shockers can shape audience talk, 2024 held pace with festival-darling auteurs and word-of-mouth wins. The carry flowed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and critical darlings underscored there is space for varied styles, from returning installments to original one-offs that carry overseas. The result for 2026 is a roster that is strikingly coherent across the industry, with intentional bunching, a spread of brand names and untested plays, and a sharpened commitment on theater exclusivity that increase tail monetization on premium digital and OTT platforms.

Studio leaders note the genre now acts as a swing piece on the calendar. The genre can premiere on nearly any frame, yield a quick sell for ad units and short-form placements, and outstrip with viewers that line up on opening previews and continue through the next pass if the movie lands. In the wake of a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 cadence shows belief in that approach. The calendar rolls out with a stacked January band, then exploits spring through early summer for contrast, while reserving space for a fall run that flows toward spooky season and past Halloween. The gridline also reflects the stronger partnership of specialty arms and platforms that can grow from platform, grow buzz, and broaden at the precise moment.

An added macro current is brand strategy across shared universes and heritage properties. The studios are not just making another sequel. They are trying to present ongoing narrative with a headline quality, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a fresh attitude or a casting pivot that ties a incoming chapter to a first wave. At the very same time, the visionaries behind the high-profile originals are prioritizing tactile craft, real effects and place-driven backdrops. That interplay delivers the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and surprise, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece moves that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director role and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a foundation-forward character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the artistic posture conveys a fan-service aware strategy without replaying the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Look for a marketing run anchored in franchise iconography, intro reveals, and a trailer cadence aimed at late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reawakens a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will stress. As a summer relief option, this one will seek mass reach through meme-friendly cuts, with the horror spoof format making room for quick shifts to whatever rules horror talk that spring.

Universal has three separate lanes. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is efficient, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man implements an artificial companion that escalates into a dangerous lover. The date nudges it to the front of a crowded corridor, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror uncanny live moments and micro spots that blurs companionship and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely interpreted as the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which sets up a public title to become an PR pop closer to the first look. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles concentrate elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. The filmmaker’s films are branded as filmmaker events, with a teaser that reveals little and a later trailer push that define feel without revealing the concept. The spooky-season slot lets the studio to take pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, in-camera leaning mix can feel deluxe on a tight budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror surge that embraces global rollout, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most offshore territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio launches two brand-forward plays in the back half. An untitled Insidious film lands August 21, 2026, preserving a reliable supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch incubates. The studio has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where Insidious has shown strength.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is presenting as a fresh restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a core part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both diehards and first-timers. The fall slot allows Sony to build campaign pieces around narrative world, and creature builds, elements that can stoke format premiums and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror built on rigorous craft and archaic language, this time exploring werewolf lore. The specialty arm has already reserved the holiday for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is robust.

Where the platforms fit in

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s slate transition to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a ordering that optimizes both opening-weekend urgency and platform bumps in the downstream. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and targeted theatrical runs when the data encourages it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in back-catalog play, using in-app campaigns, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about originals and festival pickups, scheduling horror entries toward the drop and eventizing debuts with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, works a two-step of tailored theatrical exposure and swift platform pivots that turns word of mouth into paid trials. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before leaning on direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has been willing to invest in select projects with established auteurs or headline-cast packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a important input for sustained usage when the genre conversation swells.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 runway with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The setup is straightforward: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult classic, updated for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical-first plan for the title, an constructive signal for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking darker fare in the fall weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, piloting the title through select festivals if the cut is ready, then activating the Christmas window to open out. That positioning has been successful for craft-driven horror with crossover potential. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not posted many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines typically coalesce after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a series of late-summer and fall platformers that can surge if reception encourages. Anticipate an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to jump-start evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Balance of brands and originals

By number, the 2026 slate skews toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is staleness. The operating solution is to sell each entry as a reframed mode. Paramount is foregrounding character and roots in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a Francophone tone from a breakout filmmaker. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be marketed as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a survival shocker premise with that teasing menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an rigorous tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the package is familiar enough to turn curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Three-year comps outline the plan. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was strong. In 2024, auteur craft horror punched above its weight in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel fresh when they alter lens and widen scale. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which advances January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The two-film strategy, with chapters filmed consecutively, provides the means for marketing to connect the chapters through relationships and themes and to continue assets in field without doldrums.

Technique and craft currents

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind this slate suggest a continued preference for physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not imitate any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the in-camera sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped principal photography and is tracking to its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that underscores atmosphere and fear rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling efficient spending.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most severe project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely highlight this aesthetic in craft journalism and craft spotlights before rolling out a tease that prioritizes vibe over plot, a move that has paid off for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that performs globally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable jump-cut reactions from early screenings. Scream 7 promises a self-referential reset that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature design and production design, which fit with convention floor stunts and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel definitive. Look for trailers that elevate precise sound design, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that play in premium auditoriums.

The schedule at a glance

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the spread of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth persists.

Late winter and spring prime the summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, The Mummy resurrects a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 bridges into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sensible. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest hits squarely for older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Back half into fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously performed. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will soak up cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a peekaboo tease plan and limited teasers that stress concept over spoilers.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a flag plant that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. The distributor has done this before, platforming with care, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film wins with critics, the studio can extend in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and holiday card usage.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting to be detailed as production moves. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative returns to the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s artificial companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem 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 travels back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost imp source love, only to face a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: mood-led adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss work to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power flips and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal done. Positioning: A-list survival chiller from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles TBA in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to fear, shaped by Cronin’s practical craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: classic creature relaunch with signature touch.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A in-home haunting piece that channels the fear through a young child’s unreliable internal vantage. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: major-studio and name-above-title haunting thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in the creative mix. Logline: {A genre lampoon that pokes at current genre trends and true crime fervors. Rating: TBD. Production: fall 2025 shoot penciled in. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

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 worldly twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: cameras rolling in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further widens again, with a another family entangled with residual nightmares. Rating: not yet rated. Production: planning summer shoot for late-summer date. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A reboot designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward classic survival-horror tone over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: forthcoming. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: closely held. Rating: not yet rated. Production: proceeding. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

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-precise speech and bone-deep menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: prepping toward a December 25 launch. Positioning: auteur prestige horror aimed at holiday corridor with crafts prospects.

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

Why the 2026 timing works

Three hands-on forces structure this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale VFX sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strategic about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming placements. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage reaction-worthy moments from test screenings, metered scare clips aligned to Thursday preview shows, and experiential pop-ups that generate creator assets. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, freeing space for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will line up across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will fit below the $40–$50 million line, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement 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 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 work those windows. 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. 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.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pattern and spread. January is a feast, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two 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 escalate across the year, using earlier releases to trailhead the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, 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 dimensionality, audio design, and camera work 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

Dates shift. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is brand heft where it matters, original vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of 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, shape lean trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.