Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed unleashes antediluvian malevolence, a chilling supernatural thriller, landing October 2025 on premium platforms

A frightening occult suspense film from cinematographer / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, evoking an prehistoric horror when newcomers become proxies in a cursed game. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home.

L.A., CA (August 8th, 2025) – hold tight for *Young & Cursed*, a intense story of staying alive and prehistoric entity that will reimagine terror storytelling this spooky time. Brought to life by rising filmmaking talent Andrew Chiaramonte, this psychological and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five teens who awaken locked in a wilderness-bound dwelling under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a troubled woman claimed by a millennia-old holy text monster. Be warned to be shaken by a filmic venture that integrates gut-punch terror with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demonic control has been a time-honored foundation in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that idea is reversed when the presences no longer descend from a different plane, but rather from their core. This echoes the shadowy dimension of the cast. The result is a gripping cognitive warzone where the events becomes a brutal conflict between divinity and wickedness.


In a isolated natural abyss, five adults find themselves imprisoned under the dark force and curse of a haunted apparition. As the companions becomes defenseless to oppose her power, marooned and tracked by entities beyond comprehension, they are obligated to stand before their raw vulnerabilities while the clock harrowingly moves toward their expiration.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and bonds splinter, pushing each protagonist to question their self and the notion of decision-making itself. The consequences mount with every second, delivering a terror ride that blends unearthly horror with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my narrative plan was to channel deep fear, an presence beyond time, influencing fragile psyche, and exposing a being that erodes the self when choice is taken.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something more primal than sorrow. She is insensitive until the evil takes hold, and that turn is gut-wrenching because it is so internal.”

Streaming Launch Details

*Young & Cursed* will be launched for horror fans beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing fans anywhere can dive into this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just launched a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, live to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has been viewed over massive response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has announced that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to scare fans abroad.


Tune in for this heart-stopping trip into the unknown. Explore *Young & Cursed* this horror drop to dive into these dark realities about the mind.


For director insights, production news, and social posts from those who lived it, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the official website.





The horror genre’s decisive shift: the 2025 cycle U.S. release slate braids together legend-infused possession, independent shockers, plus franchise surges

Spanning life-or-death fear drawn from old testament echoes to franchise returns paired with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into the richest along with deliberate year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. top-tier distributors plant stakes across the year with familiar IP, concurrently streaming platforms saturate the fall with new perspectives and archetypal fear. On the festival side, the art-house flank is carried on the kinetic energy from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween stays the prime week, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, and now, strategies include January, spring, and mid-summer. Crowds are ready, studios are methodical, and 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

The top end is active. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 amplifies the bet.

Universal lights the fuse with a risk-forward move: a refreshed Wolf Man, set not in some misty 19th-century European village, in an immediate now. Guided by Leigh Whannell 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. landing in mid January, it is part of the new strategy to own the box office’s winter dead zone with prestige horror instead of dumping ground thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs and featuring Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. Beneath the mask, it picks at rural paranoia, age cohort splits, and lynch mob logic. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer eases, Warner Bros. bows the concluding entry from its dependable horror line: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens return, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the chapter points to emotional capstone while addressing a headline case. Although the framework is familiar, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It is also positioned early in September, giving it breathing room before the October onslaught.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Derrickson re teams, and the defining traits of the first sleeper return: throwback unease, trauma foregrounded, with spooky supernatural reasoning. Here the stakes rise, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

Streamer Exclusives: Economy, maximum dread

While theaters lean on names and sequels, platforms are wagering boldly, and results are there.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry stitching three periods attached to a mass disappearance. Helmed by Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the entry marries dread with character weight. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it seems set to fuel decode culture and breakdowns, in the Barbarian lane.

In the micro chamber lane is Together, a two hander body horror spiral fronted by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Set in a remote rental home during a getaway gone wrong, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It reads tender, repulsive, and intensely uneasy, a three act churn into codependent hell. Before a platform date is locked, it looks like a certain fall stream.

On the docket is Sinners, a thirties set vampire folk saga featuring Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The narrative analyzes American religious trauma through a ghostly allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all lean on grief, loss, and identity, favoring allegory over fireworks.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the movie observes five strangers who awaken in an isolated wilderness cabin, controlled by Kyra, 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. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. That is a savvy move. No heavy handed lore. No canon weight. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. 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. This cycle, they are launchpads first and showcases second.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate, a tropical body horror opening night title, is drawing comparisons to both Cronenberg and Herzog. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller steeped in Aztec lore, is expected to close the fest with fire.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky 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 appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

This cycle, festival strategy pivots from discovery toward branding. A badge from Fantastic Fest or TIFF is now the first phase of marketing, not the last.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, set for July, reanimates the 90s series with a new lead and nostalgia tone. Rather than prior modes, it goes camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, Directed by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Signals and Trends

Mythic horror goes mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal 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 returns
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Platforms are putting money into scripts, directors, and promotion. Drops such as Weapons and Sinners arrive as events, not as catalog.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theatrical becomes a trust fall
The cinema lane is kept for probable outperformers or branchers. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

The Road Ahead: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Put Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons into September and October and you get saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

December holds on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, though a stealth streamer release may land late. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

The genre’s success in 2025 will hinge not on any one title, but on how well its diverse slate reaches its scattered, increasingly segmented audience. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next genre season: next chapters, fresh concepts, in tandem with A Crowded Calendar calibrated for jolts

Dek The current terror cycle loads from day one with a January cluster, and then carries through midyear, and far into the holiday stretch, blending name recognition, novel approaches, and well-timed counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are embracing smart costs, cinema-first plans, and social-driven marketing that elevate these pictures into mainstream chatter.

Horror’s status entering 2026

The horror marketplace has grown into the bankable tool in distribution calendars, a pillar that can scale when it performs and still insulate the risk when it under-delivers. After the 2023 year proved to greenlighters that low-to-mid budget entries can drive the discourse, the following year extended the rally with filmmaker-forward plays and word-of-mouth wins. The run flowed into 2025, where resurrections and premium-leaning entries proved there is capacity for diverse approaches, from franchise continuations to one-and-done originals that resonate abroad. The takeaway for 2026 is a lineup that feels more orchestrated than usual across distributors, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a refocused emphasis on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium rental and SVOD.

Buyers contend the genre now works like a flex slot on the rollout map. Horror can premiere on a wide range of weekends, generate a clean hook for promo reels and TikTok spots, and outstrip with fans that line up on early shows and keep coming through the next pass if the picture fires. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 plan signals belief in that setup. The slate begins with a front-loaded January schedule, then plants flags in spring and early summer for audience offsets, while saving space for a October build that flows toward the Halloween corridor and into November. The arrangement also illustrates the continuing integration of specialized labels and streamers that can nurture a platform play, stoke social talk, and scale up at the timely point.

A parallel macro theme is IP stewardship across shared universes and legacy franchises. Big banners are not just greenlighting another sequel. They are shaping as brand continuity with a occasion, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a recalibrated tone or a talent selection that links a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the in tandem, the visionaries behind the top original plays are returning to physical effects work, special makeup and location-forward worlds. That fusion affords the 2026 slate a confident blend of trust and surprise, which is what works overseas.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount leads early with two marquee bets that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the front, steering it as both a baton pass and a foundation-forward character-first story. Principal photography is underway in Atlanta, and the story approach announces a classic-referencing angle without retreading the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Look for a marketing run centered on iconic art, early character teases, and a staggered trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also dusts off a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved as creative voices for the first time since the early 2000s, a headline the campaign will foreground. As a summer counter-slot, this one will drive broad awareness through remixable clips, with the horror spoof format inviting quick adjustments to whatever defines trend lines that spring.

Universal has three discrete plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The conceit is tight, soulful, and high-concept: a grieving man installs an AI companion that becomes a lethal partner. The date positions it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to mirror creepy live activations and bite-size content that interweaves longing and fear.

On May 8, 2026, the studio books an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely read as the feature developed under working titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The posted calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which leaves room for a final title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles take the main frames.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele titles are branded as auteur events, with a concept-forward tease and a follow-up trailer set that signal tone without plot the concept. The pre-Halloween slot gives Universal room to own 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 helms, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has shown that a blood-soaked, in-camera leaning approach can feel cinematic on a moderate cost. Expect a hard-R summer horror blast that spotlights global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio rolls out two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film arrives August 21, 2026, carrying a bankable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has moved dates on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what Sony is billing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a strategic part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both diehards and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build assets around mythos, and monster design, elements that can drive PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains the filmmaker’s run of period horror characterized by rigorous craft and period language, this time circling werewolf lore. Focus has already set the date for a holiday release, a bold stance in the auteur as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s genre entries move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a ladder that fortifies both premiere heat and sign-up momentum in the later phase. Prime Video balances library titles with worldwide entries and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu focus their lanes in archive usage, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and featured rows to stretch the tail on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps optionality about internal projects and festival grabs, locking in horror entries with shorter lead times and eventizing launches with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a one-two of focused cinema runs and swift platform pivots that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before relying on horror-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has signaled readiness to board select projects with established auteurs or star packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet eligibility thresholds or to generate social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still uses the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation ramps.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is quietly building a 2026 track with two recognizable titles. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern sound and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has announced a big-screen first plan for Legacy, an constructive signal for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the autumn stretch.

Focus will play the auteur card with Werwulf, marshalling the project through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then relying on the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has proved effective for prestige horror with wider appeal. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines tend to converge after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A safe bet is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception justifies. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that debuts at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to stir evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, the 2026 slate leans toward the known side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness fan equity. The concern, as ever, is viewer burnout. The go-to fix is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is underscoring character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is promising a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a European tilt from a hot helmer. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and director-driven titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an stark tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the configuration is steady enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years make sense of the model. In 2023, a exclusive window model that preserved streaming windows did not stop a dual release from paying off when the brand was robust. In 2024, director-craft horror rose in premium screens. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga signaled that global horror franchises can still feel novel when they reframe POV and raise the stakes. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward 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 shot back-to-back, enables marketing to thread films through character arcs and themes and to keep materials circulating without long breaks.

How the films are being made

The craft conversations behind these films point to a continued bias toward material, place-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the hands-on effects stance he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished filming and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds atmosphere and fear rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership enabling budget prudence.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely pre-sell this aesthetic in long-lead press and artisan spotlights before rolling out a preview click site that withholds plot, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is calibrated for goopy mayhem, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and gathers shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a meta-horror reset that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will win or lose on monster realization and design, which favor fan-con activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the big-screen case feel definitive. Look for trailers that foreground pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and hush beats that land in premium houses.

Month-by-month map

January is jammed. 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 atmospheric change-up amid marquee brands. The month ends with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the spread of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth sustains.

February through May build the summer base. Paramount’s Scream 7 lands February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 hands off to summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings blood-heavy intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can connect 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 cycled through PLF.

Late Q3 into Q4 leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously worked. Resident Evil comes after September 18, a late-September window that still steps into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a tease-and-hold strategy and limited asset reveals that favor idea over plot.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a marker that genre can hold in the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then working critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film scores with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences 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 rolling out as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to take on a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s digital partner turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed principal photography 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 scales the story beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult rises in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Produced consecutively with the first film. Positioning: prestige survival-horror 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 love, only to meet a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed and U.S. theatrical set. Positioning: moody game adaptation built on atmosphere.

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 tough boss battle to survive on a lonely island as the power balance shifts and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: 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 in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reimagining that returns the monster to dread, founded on Cronin’s physical craft and suffocating dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: legendary monster re-up with auteur hand.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A household haunting chiller that manipulates the fear of a child’s uncertain perceptions. Rating: to be announced. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and marquee-led ghost thriller.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers re-engaging creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that needles modern genre fads and true crime preoccupations. Rating: not yet rated. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

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 spreads, with an globe-spanning twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further ripples again, with a new clan tethered to long-buried horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an emphasis on true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: TBA. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: tightly guarded. Rating: pending. Production: active. 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 time-true diction and ancient menace. Rating: TBA. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. 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 traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: slot unsettled, fall projected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three pragmatic forces drive this lineup. First, production that eased or reshuffled in 2024 needed calendar breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often require limited locations, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outperformed straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social conversation converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will work turnkey scare beats from test screenings, carefully timed scare clips dropping on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that spark influencer coverage. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

Calendar math also matters. Early-2026 family and superhero concentrations ease, freeing space for genre entries that can seize 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 parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Economics and ratings, plus sleeper strategy

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will come in under $40–$50 million, 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 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 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.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

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

Exhibitors appreciate the spacing. Horror delivers preview-night pops, tight deployments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can warrant PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing texture, aural design, and visual design that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts reconfigure. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is brand equity where it matters, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. 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-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the shocks sell the seats.