Antediluvian Dread Surfaces within Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a nightmare fueled supernatural thriller, launching October 2025 across premium platforms

One chilling metaphysical fear-driven tale from literary architect / cinema craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an forgotten nightmare when newcomers become instruments in a satanic struggle. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, Google’s YouTube, Google’s Play platform, iTunes, Apple’s TV+ service, and Fandango’s digital service.

L.A., CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a nightmarish journey of perseverance and mythic evil that will revolutionize the fear genre this spooky time. Created by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and gothic tale follows five people who emerge confined in a wooded shelter under the malevolent command of Kyra, a possessed female consumed by a prehistoric biblical demon. Steel yourself to be hooked by a audio-visual event that integrates primitive horror with mythic lore, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a enduring fixture in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that notion is subverted when the forces no longer develop externally, but rather from their core. This illustrates the deepest part of these individuals. The result is a edge-of-seat spiritual tug-of-war where the intensity becomes a merciless clash between light and darkness.


In a bleak landscape, five souls find themselves marooned under the fiendish effect and inhabitation of a obscure figure. As the companions becomes vulnerable to resist her command, left alone and chased by unknowns unnamable, they are forced to deal with their inner horrors while the hours without pause draws closer toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust mounts and connections crack, urging each participant to rethink their character and the nature of volition itself. The cost rise with every fleeting time, delivering a horror experience that merges supernatural terror with mental instability.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my focus was to extract primal fear, an malevolence rooted in antiquity, working through fragile psyche, and testing a evil that redefines identity when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra meant evoking something beneath mortal despair. She is in denial until the evil takes hold, and that shift is soul-crushing because it is so close.”

Viewing Options

*Young & Cursed* will be available for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers across the world can enjoy this demonic journey.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just premiered a new follow-up preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a next step to its first preview, which has pulled in over 100,000 views.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, making the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this unforgettable spiral into evil. Watch *Young & Cursed* this Halloween season to dive into these evil-rooted truths about the mind.


For bonus footage, on-set glimpses, and updates straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across Instagram and Twitter and visit the official movie site.





Horror’s sea change: 2025 for genre fans U.S. release slate weaves legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, plus brand-name tremors

Beginning with grit-forward survival fare saturated with biblical myth to series comebacks as well as acutely observed indies, 2025 stands to become the most dimensioned together with calculated campaign year for the modern era.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. studio majors bookend the months with familiar IP, in tandem platform operators stack the fall with fresh voices paired with archetypal fear. Across the art-house lane, the art-house flank is drafting behind the carry from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. Since Halloween is the prized date, the rest of the calendar is filling out with surgical precision. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, notably this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are leaning in, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may be recorded as the genre’s most deliberate campaign.

Studio Chessboard and Mini-Major Plays: Premium dread reemerges

No one at the top is standing still. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 capitalizes.

Universal’s schedule leads off the quarter with an audacious swing: a contemporary Wolf Man, leaving behind the period European setting, but a crisp modern milieu. Under director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this approach fixes the lycanthropy within intimate rupture. The evolution surpasses the body, into spouses, parents, and bruised humanity. set for mid January, it helps remake the winter trough with prestige offerings, not discard thrillers.

Spring ushers in Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Under Eli Craig with Katie Douglas alongside Kevin Durand, it reads as gore kissed small town horror with wry bite. Under the makeup, it dissects provincial panic, age gap tensions, and mob verdicts. Initial heat flags it as potent.

As summer winds down, Warner Bros. Pictures launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the piece hints at a heartfelt wrap as it treats a notorious case. Even if the pattern is recognizable, 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. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the memorable motifs return: old school creep, trauma as text, plus uncanny supernatural grammar. This pass pushes higher, by expanding the “grabber” backstory and grief across bloodlines.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a film that does not need traditional marketing to sell tickets. The return delves further into myth, thickens the animatronic pantheon, courting teens and the thirty something base. It hits in December, securing the winter cap.

Streaming Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

While the big screen favors titles you know, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

Among the most ambitious streaming plays is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Steered by Zach Cregger and starring Josh Brolin with Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is poised to inspire think pieces and forums, echoing Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a close quarters body horror study 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 comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

On the docket is Sinners, a 1930s period vampire folk story headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Captured with warm sepia and heavy biblical metaphor, it feels like There Will Be Blood fused with Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession With Depth: Young & Cursed

Hitting October 2 on the platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed 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. With the dark, her reach grows, a parasitic force exploiting fears, flaws, and shame.

The terror is psychological in engine, alive with primal myth. Instead of another exorcism piece centered on Catholic rites or Latin incantations, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith comes not via liturgy, but from trauma, quiet, and human brittleness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

Streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home have positioned the film as a Halloween counterweight to theatrical sequels and monster revivals. It is canny scheduling. No overinflated mythology. No franchise baggage. Sheer psychological unease, compact and taut, calibrated to digital binge beats. Against fireworks, Young & Cursed might stand apart by stillness, then shock.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF operate as greenhouses for horror six to twelve months down the line. This year, the launchpad function outruns the showcase role.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

Festival strategy in 2025 is not just about discovery, it is about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy Brands: Sequels and Reboots, Reinvention Included

This year’s legacy entries carry strength and deliberation.

Fear Street: Prom Queen comes in July with franchise revival, new lead, retro styling. Unlike earlier entries, this leans camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The initial entry’s meme life and streaming legs push Universal to scale up.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With sharp marketing, it could translate to The Hunger Games for horror adults.

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

Dials to Watch

Mythic horror goes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed, and with Aztec curses in Whistle, horror taps ancient texts and symbols. This reads not as nostalgia but as reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body Horror Makes a Comeback
With films like Together, Weapons, and Keeper, horror is going back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Low grade filler is no longer the platform default. Streamers are investing in real scripts, real directors, and real marketing pushes. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival ribbons become currency for better windows and top shelves. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Cinemas are a trust fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. Most others angle PVOD or hybrid. Horror still lives in theaters, more curated than broad.

Outlook: 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. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive 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 assignment is not to chase the next Get Out, it is to build horror that endures beyond box office.



The oncoming chiller calendar year ahead: returning titles, filmmaker-first projects, paired with A jammed Calendar Built For frights

Dek The arriving scare slate packs from day one with a January logjam, subsequently spreads through midyear, and continuing into the late-year period, mixing marquee clout, new voices, and savvy offsets. Studios with streamers are leaning into cost discipline, cinema-first plans, and influencer-ready assets that pivot horror entries into cross-demo moments.

Horror momentum into 2026

This category has solidified as the steady release in programming grids, a lane that can expand when it performs and still limit the losses when it falls short. After the 2023 year showed strategy teams that cost-conscious scare machines can drive the discourse, 2024 kept the drumbeat going with auteur-driven buzzy films and under-the-radar smashes. The tailwind extended into the 2025 frame, where legacy revivals and arthouse crossovers made clear there is room for different modes, from legacy continuations to original one-offs that carry overseas. The end result for the 2026 slate is a roster that feels more orchestrated than usual across studios, with purposeful groupings, a harmony of legacy names and novel angles, and a reinvigorated strategy on exhibition windows that feed downstream value on PVOD and home streaming.

Distribution heads claim the horror lane now functions as a schedule utility on the release plan. Horror can launch on open real estate, furnish a clear pitch for promo reels and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that line up on Thursday nights and stick through the second frame if the feature connects. On the heels of a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 setup reflects trust in that setup. The year kicks off with a busy January corridor, then taps spring and early summer for contrast, while carving room for a late-year stretch that stretches into late October and into post-Halloween. The gridline also highlights the expanded integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, generate chatter, and scale up at the timely point.

A reinforcing pattern is brand strategy across connected story worlds and long-running brands. The studios are not just making another continuation. They are looking to package brand continuity with a must-see charge, whether that is a title design that telegraphs a tonal shift or a casting move that threads a next entry to a original cycle. At the same time, the writer-directors behind the high-profile originals are celebrating physical effects work, practical effects and grounded locations. That interplay hands 2026 a lively combination of brand comfort and surprise, which is a pattern that scales internationally.

Major-player strategies for 2026

Paramount leads early with two centerpiece entries that straddle tones widely. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, marketing it as both a succession moment and a DNA-forward character-first story. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged approach without looping the last two entries’ core arc for the Carpenter sisters. Anticipate a campaign stacked with franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a trailer cadence landing toward late fall. Distribution is big-screen via Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are back together, with the Wayans brothers involved behind the scenes for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will play up. As a summer alternative, this one will seek wide buzz through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick turns to whatever tops the conversation that spring.

Universal has three clear plays. SOULM8TE arrives January 9, 2026, a digital-age offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is straightforward, loss-driven, and premise-first: a grieving man installs an algorithmic mate that unfolds into a fatal companion. The date slots it at the front of a heavy month, with Universal’s campaign likely to echo viral uncanny stunts and short-cut promos that fuses love and unease.

On May 8, 2026, the studio places an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely assumed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a official title to become an headline beat closer to the teaser. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles circle other weekends.

Supplementing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film grabs October 23, 2026, a slot he has defined before. Peele’s pictures are positioned as creative events, with a mystery-first teaser and a second beat that shape mood without giving away the concept. The late-month date allows Universal to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then press 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 commands, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has shown that a gnarly, hands-on effects treatment can feel prestige on a efficient spend. Look for a splatter summer horror charge that maximizes global traction, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is unusually deep. The studio lines up two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand front and center while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where Insidious has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what the studio is framing 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 clearer mandate to serve both franchise faithful and fresh viewers. The fall slot offers Sony space to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can drive premium booking interest and fan-forward engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, stakes a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends the filmmaker’s run of period horror centered on immersive craft and linguistic texture, this time engaging werewolf myth. Focus has already planted the flag for a holiday release, a confidence marker in Eggers as a specialty play that can build and expand if early reception is supportive.

Streaming strategies and platform plays

Platform tactics for 2026 run on predictable routes. Universal titles move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a cadence that amplifies both launch urgency and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves outside acquisitions with global originals and short theatrical plays when the data backs it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using curated hubs, Halloween hubs, and curated strips to stretch the tail on the horror cume. Netflix keeps options open about internal projects and festival buys, finalizing horror entries tight to release and eventizing launches with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that translates talk to trials. That will be key for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pressing community channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ assesses case by case horror on a title-by-title basis. The platform has exhibited willingness to buy select projects with accomplished filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for platform stickiness when the genre conversation builds.

Art-house genre prospects

Cineverse is mapping a 2026 corridor with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The promise is no-nonsense: the same haunting, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a September to November window, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has flagged a theatrical rollout for Legacy, an good sign for fans of the relentless series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, marshalling the project through festival season if the cut is ready, then relying on the holiday dates to move out. That positioning has helped for elevated genre with four-quadrant hopes. 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 reasonable expectation is a run of late-summer and fall platformers that can break out if reception supports. Plan on an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that screens at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as a pair, using select theatrical to spark the evangelism that fuels their audience.

IP versus fresh ideas

By skew, 2026 tilts in favor of the franchise column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is overexposure. The pragmatic answer is to present each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is elevating character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is promising a new foundation for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a ascendant talent. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment shifts fast.

Originals and visionary-led titles add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be positioned as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, places Rachel McAdams into a island survival premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf delivers period specificity and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a recognizable brand, the deal build is grounded enough to generate pre-sales and early previews.

Comps from the last three years clarify the playbook. In 2023, a theatrical-first plan that held distribution windows did not obstruct a day-date move from paying off when the brand was trusted. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror rose in PLF auditoriums. In 2025, a reanimation of a beloved infection saga proved again that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reorient and expand the canvas. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which continues January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The paired-chapter approach, with chapters filmed consecutively, creates space for marketing to tie installments through personae and themes and to keep materials circulating without hiatuses.

Creative tendencies and craft

The creative meetings behind this slate forecast a continued tilt toward real, location-led craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that leans on aura and dread rather than theme-park spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting cost management.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has spoken of Werwulf as the grimmest project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely frame this aesthetic in craft profiles and craft features before rolling out a teaser 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 built for visceral gnarl, a signature of the series that plays abroad in red-band trailers and generates shareable reaction videos from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a meta inflection that refocuses on the original lead. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on creature craft and set design, which favor convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the premium-screen pitch feel irresistible. Look for trailers that highlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and mute beats that explode in larger rooms.

The schedule at a glance

January is jammed. SOULM8TE his comment is here 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 tonal palate cleanser amid heavier IP. The month closes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a crash-survival thriller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is real, but the menu of tones gives each title a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring load in summer. Scream 7 rolls out February 27 with heritage buzz. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reintroduces a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was known for genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The 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 light and four-quadrant, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 drops no-compromise intensity. The counterprogramming logic is smart. The spoof can deliver 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 rolled through premiums.

August and September into October leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil rolls in after September 18, a early fall window that still preps for Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film grabs October 23 and will own cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited advance reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, staging carefully, then leveraging critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film hits with critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting in progress as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative reorients around the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: classic-DNA reset with a current angle.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Photography complete 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 expands the scope beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Lensed back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a warped reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Done with U.S. run set. Positioning: fog-and-fear 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 isolated island as the control dynamic reverses and suspicion grows. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. 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 not yet announced in official materials. Logline: A contemporary retelling that returns the monster to terror, shaped by Cronin’s material craft and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Production wrapped. Positioning: classic monster relaunch with a filmmaker’s stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A closed-door haunting piece that toys with the panic of a child’s wobbly perceptions. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A parody return that satirizes today’s horror trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: big-tent summer spoof.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new family anchored to returning horrors. Rating: to be announced. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: consistent franchise performer in a beneficial frame.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: pending public reveal. Top cast: TBD. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an tilt toward survival-driven horror over action fireworks. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: active. Positioning: filmmaker showcase with teaser-first cadence.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-specific language and raw menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: actively prepping for a holiday slot. Positioning: filmmaker-driven holiday release with craft awards runway.

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: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces define this lineup. First, production that bottlenecked or re-sequenced in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can plug those gaps fast because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and accelerated schedules. Second, studios have become more structured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently generated more than straight-to-streaming releases. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will amplify clippable moments from test screenings, precision scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that become influencer fuel. It is a repeatable playbook because it wins.

The slot calculus is real. The family and cape slots are lighter early in 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which lets each title generate conversation without cannibalizing the others. Summer provides the other window. The satire rides the animated and action tide, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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 underdog chase continues in Q1, where lean-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 maximize 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 this content 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. Predict a resilient PVOD phase industry-wide, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers tempo and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July runs hard, 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 fuel talk and ticketing without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can gain momentum, using earlier releases to set up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors endorse the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, right-sized allotments, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can deserve premium formats, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, soundscape, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Shapes Up Strong

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is recognizable IP where it plays, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios know when and how to deliver 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 final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, edit tight trailers, preserve the surprise, and let the scares sell the seats.