Antediluvian Dread Ascends in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across top streamers

This frightening occult scare-fest from storyteller / creative lead Andrew Chiaramonte, setting free an primeval nightmare when unknowns become vehicles in a hellish ordeal. Releasing on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s streaming platform, YouTube streaming, Google’s digital store, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand.

Hollywood, CA (August 8th, 2025) – Prepare yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching account of staying alive and age-old darkness that will revolutionize fear-driven cinema this scare season. Created by rising thriller expert Andrew Chiaramonte, this tense and atmospheric suspense flick follows five teens who suddenly rise caught in a far-off shelter under the sinister will of Kyra, a central character dominated by a millennia-old sacrosanct terror. Be prepared to be seized by a big screen ride that weaves together primitive horror with mystical narratives, streaming on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Demon possession has been a recurring fixture in motion pictures. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is redefined when the beings no longer appear beyond the self, but rather inside them. This marks the grimmest aspect of the victims. The result is a enthralling inner struggle where the emotions becomes a constant fight between right and wrong.


In a unforgiving woodland, five figures find themselves contained under the malevolent presence and infestation of a unknown character. As the youths becomes incapacitated to fight her influence, severed and targeted by powers unnamable, they are cornered to confront their inner horrors while the timeline coldly ticks onward toward their dark fate.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust rises and connections break, prompting each participant to challenge their character and the idea of conscious will itself. The cost rise with every second, delivering a paranormal ride that connects occult fear with deep insecurity.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my intention was to draw upon primitive panic, an malevolence that existed before mankind, feeding on our fears, and highlighting a curse that forces self-examination when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra asked for exploring something outside normal anguish. She is ignorant until the haunting manifests, and that change is eerie because it is so internal.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be available for home viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—providing subscribers in all regions can witness this terrifying film.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just uploaded a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, currently showing to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its original clip, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its North American premiere, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has confirmed that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, giving access to the movie to horror fans worldwide.


Join this gripping descent into hell. Confront *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to confront these fearful discoveries about free will.


For exclusive trailers, on-set glimpses, and news via the production team, follow @YACFilm across platforms and visit our spooky domain.





Modern horror’s inflection point: 2025 in focus U.S. calendar Mixes ancient-possession motifs, signature indie scares, together with series shake-ups

Ranging from survivor-centric dread saturated with legendary theology through to returning series alongside sharp indie viewpoints, 2025 is coalescing into the most variegated paired with tactically planned year for the modern era.

The 2025 horror calendar reads less like chaos, more like a plan. top-tier distributors bookend the months via recognizable brands, concurrently premium streamers load up the fall with new voices together with scriptural shivers. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is surfing the momentum from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, and now, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. Fans are ravenous, studios are targeted, therefore 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

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

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

the Universal camp leads off the quarter with a risk-forward move: a reinterpreted Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, but a sharp contemporary setting. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The arc is bodily and domestic, about marriage, caregiving, and fragile humanity. arriving 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.

As spring rolls in, Clown in a Cornfield bows, a YA slasher adaptation reworked as a minimalist shock machine. Helmed by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind its clown mask lies commentary on small town paranoia, generational divides, and mob justice. Early festival buzz suggests it has teeth.

By late summer, Warner’s pipeline releases the last chapter inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Though the outline is tried, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It goes early September, easing the path before October flood.

The Black Phone 2 follows. Set early then moved to October, a confidence tell. Derrickson resumes command, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: old school creep, trauma foregrounded, plus otherworld rules that chill. This time the stakes climb, by digging further into the “grabber” mythos and grief’s generational echo.

Bringing up the winter anchor is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a picture that draws on name power. The return delves further into myth, builds out the animatronic fear crew, speaking to teens and older millennials. It arrives in December, locking down the winter tail.

Platform Plays: Lean budgets, heavy bite

While theaters lean on names and sequels, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case woven horror suite braiding three timelines tied to a mass vanishing. Guided by Zach Cregger including Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

Keeping things close quarters is Together, a room scale body horror descent featuring Alison Brie opposite Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is virtually assured for fall.

Also rising is Sinners, a pre war vampire folk narrative led by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Pre release tests anoint it a conversation starter on streaming.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed plays as a rare fusion, spare in setting, sweeping in lore. Conceived and directed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one burrows toward something older, something darker. Lilith bypasses ritual, she awakens from trauma, repression, and human fragility. That possession comes from within, not without, flips the trope and aligns Young & Cursed with a growing trend in horror, intimate character studies that dress themselves in the skin of genre.

On Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home, the film acts as a Halloween counterpoint to sequel pipelines and creature comebacks. It is an astute call. No overweight mythology. No continuity burden. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Badges as Fuel

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They serve less as display cases, more as runways.

This year, Fantastic Fest confirms a strong horror slate. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, an Aztec lore revenge tale, aims to close with burn.

Midnight entries such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You draw buzz for more than titles, namely execution. Backed by A24, it skewers toxic fandom amid a convention lockdown, poised to break big.

SXSW staged Clown in a Cornfield and lined up microbudget haunts for talks. Sundance forecasts grief bent elevated horror again, while Tribeca’s genre section leans more urban, social, and surreal.

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The franchise bench is sturdier and more targeted than lately.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Versus earlier beats, it favors camp and prom night melodrama. Bring tiaras, red dye, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 arrives late June, poised to elaborate techno horror lore through new players and AI nightmares. That first run’s social and SVOD traction lets Universal push further.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it is a brutal dystopian allegory wrapped in survival horror, a kids walking until they die competition with no real winners. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Additionally, reboots and sequels, among them Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, populate the months, with timing held for strategy or acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Myth turns mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror reemerges
With Together, Weapons, and Keeper, the genre goes back to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation encode heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
Throwaway platform horror is on the way out. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. 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. Forgo a festival map in 2025 and obscurity beckons.

Theaters are a trust fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The remainder goes PVOD or hybrid. Horror is not vanishing from theaters, it is getting curated.

What’s Next: Fall saturation and a winter joker

Those four, Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons, crowd September and October to saturation. Indies including Bone Lake and Keeper will wrestle for room. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. Given the dark, mythic lean of the year’s big films, a final creature feature or exorcism slot is open.

Horror’s 2025 outcome will be decided not by one title, but by how its variety connects with splintered audiences. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The 2026 spook slate: continuations, Originals, as well as A stacked Calendar aimed at frights

Dek: The new scare cycle loads early with a January pile-up, from there carries through June and July, and well into the holidays, weaving IP strength, new concepts, and calculated offsets. Studios and platforms are focusing on smart costs, theater-first strategies, and influencer-ready assets that position these offerings into mainstream chatter.

The state of horror, heading into 2026

The field has proven to be the predictable swing in distribution calendars, a space that can lift when it performs and still limit the downside when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year reminded executives that responsibly budgeted genre plays can lead the national conversation, 2024 sustained momentum with high-profile filmmaker pieces and stealth successes. The head of steam carried into the 2025 frame, where reboots and arthouse crossovers showed there is a market for many shades, from continued chapters to original one-offs that travel well. The aggregate for 2026 is a lineup that seems notably aligned across studios, with mapped-out bands, a spread of recognizable IP and new concepts, and a recommitted priority on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital and streaming.

Insiders argue the genre now behaves like a utility player on the calendar. The genre can bow on most weekends, deliver a easy sell for teasers and shorts, and outperform with demo groups that turn out on first-look nights and keep coming through the follow-up frame if the release pays off. Exiting a production delay era, the 2026 pattern telegraphs certainty in that model. The year opens with a weighty January schedule, then leans on spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while holding room for a fall cadence that stretches into holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The schedule also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and streaming partners that can launch in limited release, spark evangelism, and broaden at the optimal moment.

Another broad trend is brand management across shared universes and veteran brands. The players are not just greenlighting another continuation. They are shaping as story carry-over with a sense of event, whether that is a typeface approach that suggests a re-angled tone or a ensemble decision that ties a next entry to a classic era. At the alongside this, the filmmakers behind the high-profile originals are leaning into in-camera technique, practical effects and place-driven backdrops. That alloy produces the 2026 slate a healthy mix of brand comfort and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

Studios and mini-majors: what the big players are doing

Paramount fires first with two spotlight projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair and Neve Campbell back at the core, presenting it as both a baton pass and a DNA-forward relationship-driven entry. Production is active in Atlanta, and the tonal posture suggests a heritage-honoring strategy without recycling the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected driven by franchise iconography, character-first teases, and a teaser-to-trailer rhythm rolling toward late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

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 back together, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will double down on. As a summer counter-slot, this one will generate mainstream recognition through share-ready beats, with the horror spoof format enabling quick reframes to whatever dominates pop-cultural buzz that spring.

Universal has three differentiated plays. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a connected offshoot from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The foundation is clean, heartbroken, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that becomes a perilous partner. The date sets it at the front of a front-loaded month, with the studio’s marketing likely to bring back uncanny live moments and short-form creative that mixes longing and terror.

On May 8, 2026, the studio slots an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely taken to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which reserves space for a official title to become an event moment closer to the early tease. The timing hands the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film books October 23, 2026, a slot he has made his own before. Peele’s work are marketed as signature events, with a teaser that reveals little and a follow-up trailer set that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The prime October weekend gives Universal room to dominate 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, pairs with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has consistently shown that a in-your-face, prosthetic-heavy strategy can feel deluxe on a mid-range budget. Frame it as a red-band summer horror shot that embraces foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is well stocked. The studio sets two IP moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, sustaining a consistent supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has reslotted on this title before, but the current plan sticks it in late summer, where the brand has found success.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reappears in what the studio is presenting as a ground-zero 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 devotees and new audiences. The fall slot allows Sony to build artifacts around environmental design, and monster aesthetics, elements that can amplify premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, positions a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film carries forward the filmmaker’s run of period horror shaped by minute detail and period speech, this time exploring werewolf lore. The imprint has already set the date for a holiday release, a confidence marker in the auteur as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is enthusiastic.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Platform tactics for 2026 run on stable tracks. The studio’s horror films head to copyright after a exclusive run then PVOD, a pacing that expands both premiere heat and trial spikes in the post-theatrical. Prime Video balances catalogue additions with cross-border buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in archive usage, using prominent placements, holiday hubs, and curated rows to keep attention on aggregate take. Netflix stays opportunistic about Netflix films and festival grabs, finalizing horror entries near launch and positioning as event drops releases with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, capitalizes on a dual-phase of focused cinema runs and quick platforming that monetizes buzz via trials. That will count for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ cherry-picks horror on a per-project basis. The platform has signaled readiness to secure select projects with accomplished filmmakers or marquee packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards-qualifying thresholds or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney domestic still feeds from the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for monthly activity when the genre conversation ramps.

Festival-to-platform breakouts

Cineverse is crafting a 2026 arc with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is straightforward: the same atmospheric, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, modernized for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has hinted a wide-to-platform plan for Legacy, an healthy marker for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the late-season weeks.

Focus will cultivate the auteur Source lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then working the holiday slot to broaden. That positioning has served the company well for arthouse horror with mainstream crossovers. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not publicly set many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines usually solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A likely scenario is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Keep an eye on 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 as a pair, using boutique theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Series vs standalone

By proportion, the 2026 slate favors the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use legacy awareness. The risk, as ever, is brand erosion. The near-term solution is to market each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is elevating character and legacy in Scream 7, Sony is floating a clean-slate build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leading with a Francophone tone from a hot helmer. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries add oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, anchors on Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with signature mischievous dread. SOULM8TE offers a tight, eerie tech hook. Werwulf emphasizes period craft and an flinty tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is steady enough to build pre-sales and preview-night turnout.

Past-three-year patterns clarify the template. In 2023, a exclusive cinema model that held distribution windows did not stop a day-date move from winning when the brand was sticky. In 2024, precision craft horror over-performed in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a revival of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they shift POV and elevate scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which presses on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The double feature plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to thread films through character spine and themes and to keep assets in-market without long breaks.

Creative tendencies and craft

The behind-the-scenes chatter behind the upcoming entries forecast a continued shift toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not track with any recent iteration of the property, a stance that aligns with the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is tracking toward its April 17, 2026 date. Look for a campaign that underscores grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining financial discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has called Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a 13th-century milieu and period-accurate language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in deep-dive features and craft spotlights before rolling out a first look that plays with mood rather than plot, a move that has resonated for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and drives shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta inflection that puts the original star at center. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature and environment design, which match well with convention activations and controlled asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sonic showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the in-theater case feel irresistible. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and quiet voids that shine in top rooms.

From winter to holidays

January is stacked. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a gloomy counterbalance amid bigger brand plays. The month finishes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a island survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth holds.

Post-January through spring stage summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with nostalgia heat. In April, The Mummy re-centers a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once played to genre counterprogramming and now hosts 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 spoofy and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is sound. The spoof can connect next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have moved through premium slots.

Back half into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a shoulder-season slot that still links to Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event occupies October 23 and will captivate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely paired with a minimalist tease strategy and limited teasers that prioritize concept over plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a stakes that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as filmmaker-first prestige. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can increase count in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card use.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production is underway. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative re-keys to the original film’s core. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: return-to-core with a fresh edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion evolves 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 grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot back-to-back with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revered infection cycle.

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 meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed with U.S. theatrical distribution secured. Positioning: ambience-forward adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her severe boss work to survive on a lonely island as the power balance of power turns and fear crawls. 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 disclosed in official materials. Logline: A fresh reimagining that returns the monster to chill, built on Cronin’s practical craft and encroaching dread. Rating: TBA. Production: In the can. Positioning: classic monster reset with creative stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A domestic haunting tale that twists the chill of a child’s shaky read. Rating: TBA. Production: completed. Positioning: major-studio and star-led supernatural mood piece.

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 satire sequel that needles current genre trends and true-crime crazes. Rating: pending. Production: shoot planned for fall 2025. Positioning: broad-lane summer entry.

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 surges, with an international twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: currently in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-R franchise continuation built for premium large format.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: awaiting reveal. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a new clan linked to old terrors. Rating: not yet rated. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: durable spectral IP in a late-summer sweet spot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A re-seeded launch designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survivalist horror over action spectacle. Rating: TBD. Production: in active development with set date. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBA. Logline: Kept under wraps by design. Rating: TBA. Production: active. Positioning: director event, teaser-led.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on time-true diction and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: prestige horror for the holidays, with potential awards-season craft appeal.

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 classic theatrical rollout before platforming. Status: date in flux, fall expected.

Why 2026 lands now

Three practical forces define this lineup. First, production that decelerated or recalendared in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale effects set pieces, and pared-down timelines. Second, studios have become more methodical 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 dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will capitalize on repeatable beats from test screenings, select scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that power influencer posts. It is a repeatable playbook because it pays off.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can seize a weekend or serve as the mature-skew alternative. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will line up across five weekends, which allows chatter to build title by title. Summer provides the other window. The parody can surf the early-summer animated and action swell, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The stealth-hit search continues in Q1, where modest-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to maximize those pockets. January could easily deliver the first shock over-performer 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. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, 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 pace and range. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a somber, literate nightmare. That is how you hold talk and turnout without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to warm up the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can win premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing dimensionality, sound, and picture 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

Timing shifts. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is set. There is franchise muscle where it helps, filmmaker vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios meet the timing for scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut crisp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.