Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed confronts ancient terror, a spine tingling horror feature, landing Oct 2025 on major streaming services

An spine-tingling paranormal horror tale from screenwriter / movie maker Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an archaic entity when foreigners become tools in a dark ritual. Going live on October 2, 2025, on Prime Video, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple’s iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – be warned for *Young & Cursed*, a unnerving account of struggle and mythic evil that will resculpt terror storytelling this spooky time. Created by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and claustrophobic fearfest follows five people who regain consciousness isolated in a secluded cottage under the dark rule of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old Old Testament spirit. Arm yourself to be shaken by a filmic event that unites raw fear with legendary tales, unleashing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Unholy possession has been a mainstay trope in genre filmmaking. In *Young & Cursed*, that tradition is reversed when the forces no longer develop beyond the self, but rather from deep inside. This mirrors the grimmest part of these individuals. The result is a intense identity crisis where the emotions becomes a merciless conflict between purity and corruption.


In a isolated terrain, five teens find themselves cornered under the fiendish control and spiritual invasion of a haunted character. As the characters becomes unresisting to oppose her rule, left alone and attacked by terrors beyond reason, they are forced to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the timeline unceasingly edges forward toward their end.


In *Young & Cursed*, unease amplifies and alliances break, coercing each character to reconsider their true nature and the philosophy of conscious will itself. The hazard surge with every tick, delivering a paranormal ride that connects demonic fright with psychological weakness.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my aim was to draw upon elemental fright, an presence born of forgotten ages, manipulating our fears, and navigating a presence that threatens selfhood when we lose control.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Stepping into Kyra was about accessing something outside normal anguish. She is innocent until the haunting manifests, and that metamorphosis is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Where to Watch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for viewing beginning on October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—making sure households internationally can survive this fearful revelation.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just published a new sneak peek #2 for *Young & Cursed*, posted to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a follow up to its intro video, which has garnered over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has stated that *Young & Cursed* will also be delivered to global audiences, delivering the story to fans of fear everywhere.


Don’t miss this heart-stopping voyage through terror. Face *Young & Cursed* this October the 2nd to survive these evil-rooted truths about inner darkness.


For behind-the-scenes access, production insights, and announcements straight from the filmmakers, follow @YACFilm across social media and visit the film’s website.





Horror’s inflection point: 2025 for genre fans U.S. lineup braids together legend-infused possession, festival-born jolts, stacked beside legacy-brand quakes

Running from survival horror grounded in near-Eastern lore all the way to IP renewals in concert with pointed art-house angles, 2025 is lining up as the richest as well as blueprinted year in ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners stabilize the year with franchise anchors, as premium streamers flood the fall with debut heat as well as legend-coded dread. On the independent axis, festival-forward creators is buoyed by the echoes from a high-water 2024 festival stretch. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, yet in 2025, bookings reach January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are intentional, accordingly 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 accelerates.

the Universal camp sets the tone with a big gambit: a refashioned Wolf Man, stepping away from the classic old-country village, but a sharp contemporary setting. Under director Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this iteration anchors the lycanthropy in a domestic breakdown. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. arriving mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher port tuned to austere horror. Directed by Eli Craig with Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it functions as blood smeared American gothic with snark. 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 Bros. launches the swan song of its steadiest horror franchise: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Though the formula is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

Arriving later is The Black Phone 2. Initially pegged for early summer, an October berth implies conviction. Derrickson re engages, and the tone that worked before is intact: period tinged dread, trauma centered writing, and a cold supernatural calculus. This time, the stakes are raised, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Rounding the tentpole corner is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The sophomore entry expands the mythology, expands its animatronic nightmare roster, reaching teens and game grownups. It drops in December, stabilizing the winter back end.

SVOD Originals: Economy, maximum dread

With cinemas leaning into known IP, streamers are trying sharper edges, and buzz accrues.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a long shadow anthology of dread knitting three time bands around a mass vanishing. From Zach Cregger pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it will likely trigger thread wars and analysis videos, recalling Barbarian.

On the more intimate flank sits Together, a tight space body horror vignette with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the work maps love envy and self hatred onto bodily unraveling. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Although a platform date is not yet posted, it is virtually assured for fall.

Another headline entry is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable fronted by Michael B. Jordan. Photographed in sepia saturation with biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The film interrogates American religious trauma through supernatural allegory. Dry runs call it a headline grabbing streamer.

A cluster of streaming indies sits ready: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each taps grief, vanishing, and identity, treating horror as metaphor more than spectacle.

Possession Underneath: Young & Cursed

Dropping October 2 across all major streaming platforms, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the film follows five strangers who wake in a remote wilderness cabin under the thrall of Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. As the hours blacken, her hold tightens, an invasive current triggering fears, fissures, and regret.

The menace is mind forward, supercharged by primal myth. Avoiding the usual exorcism path with Catholic ritual and Latin spell, this one bores into something older, something darker. Lilith arrives not by rite, but through trauma, silence, 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.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It looks like sharp programming. No overinflated mythology. No brand fatigue. Simply psychological fear, lean and taut, built for the binge then recover rhythm. In a spectacle stack, Young & Cursed could be the hush before the shriek.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF act as proving grounds for the next waves. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate, an opening night tropical body-horror, invites Cronenberg meets Herzog talk. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. The A24 fueled satire of toxic fandom in a con lockdown has breakout energy.

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

The festival game increasingly values branding over mere discovery. Festival laurels are opening moves, not closing notes.

Long Running Lines: Follow Ups, Restarts, and Reframes

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

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. In contrast to earlier chapters, it skews camp and prom night melodrama. Cue tiaras, phony blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 slots late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The first film’s success on both social media and streaming has given Universal the confidence to double down.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, steered by Francis Lawrence, it reads as a brutal dystopian allegory inside survival horror, a walk till you drop competition for kids with no winners. Marketed correctly, it could be 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.

Key Trends

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. This is less nostalgia, more reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror surpasses shocks, it recalls evil’s antiquity.

Body horror ascends again
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Originals on platforms bite harder
The era of filler horror on streamers is ending. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Laurels are not just decorative, they leverage theatrical, premium placement, and media cycles. Without a festival strategy in 2025, a horror film risks vanishing.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Theatrical is reserved for titles believed to overperform or sow sequels. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror stays in theaters, in chosen pockets.

What’s Next: Autumn overload with a winter wildcard

Stacking Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October yields saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper must fight for oxygen. Anticipate possible date slides into early 2026 or platform moves.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 steadies December, yet a last minute streamer surprise is in play. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. This year is not about chasing the next Get Out, it is about building horror that lives beyond the box office.



The next fright calendar year ahead: continuations, standalone ideas, as well as A packed Calendar designed for screams

Dek: The current genre calendar packs from day one with a January wave, thereafter spreads through the warm months, and deep into the winter holidays, blending IP strength, creative pitches, and calculated counterprogramming. Major distributors and platforms are leaning into cost discipline, box-office-first windows, and short-form initiatives that turn the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

This space has proven to be the steady play in annual schedules, a corner that can surge when it lands and still buffer the floor when it underperforms. After the 2023 year reassured greenlighters that lean-budget chillers can command pop culture, the following year carried the beat with festival-darling auteurs and under-the-radar smashes. The upswing flowed into 2025, where resurrections and elevated films showed there is a market for diverse approaches, from brand follow-ups to one-and-done originals that export nicely. The net effect for the 2026 slate is a slate that looks unusually coordinated across the market, with planned clusters, a combination of marquee IP and new packages, and a recommitted commitment on release windows that drive downstream revenue on paid VOD and OTT platforms.

Planners observe the genre now works like a versatile piece on the rollout map. The genre can roll out on open real estate, provide a sharp concept for previews and platform-native cuts, and overperform with ticket buyers that lean in on Thursday nights and maintain momentum through the week two if the film works. Emerging from a strike-bent pipeline, the 2026 configuration telegraphs conviction in that model. The slate commences with a stacked January run, then targets spring into early summer for contrast, while saving space for a late-year stretch that flows toward holiday-adjacent weekends and afterwards. The calendar also highlights the deeper integration of specialized imprints and SVOD players that can grow from platform, create conversation, and grow at the strategic time.

A parallel macro theme is brand curation across brand ecosystems and classic IP. Distribution groups are not just making another return. They are seeking to position connection with a specialness, whether that is a title design that broadcasts a re-angled tone or a casting choice that connects a upcoming film to a foundational era. At the alongside this, the creative teams behind the eagerly awaited originals are favoring hands-on technique, in-camera effects and specific settings. That alloy yields the 2026 slate a confident blend of home base and novelty, which is why the genre exports well.

What the big players are lining up

Paramount sets the tone early with two big-ticket plays that span tone from serious to silly. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director position and Neve Campbell back at the front, presenting it as both a passing of the torch and a classic-mode character piece. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a roots-evoking angle without replaying the last two entries’ family thread. Watch for a push fueled by classic imagery, first-look character reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan targeting late fall. Distribution is cinema-first via Paramount.

Paramount also reboots 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 creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a summer contrast play, this one will generate wide buzz through gif-able moments, with the horror spoof format supporting quick reframes to whatever leads the social talk that spring.

Universal has three discrete strategies. SOULM8TE premieres January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The hook is efficient, grief-rooted, and high-concept: a grieving man brings home an machine companion that turns into a perilous partner. The date slots it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to reprise off-kilter promo beats and short reels that threads intimacy and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets 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 dated slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a final title to become an headline beat closer to the initial promo. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has dominated before. Peele titles are sold as signature events, with a hinting teaser and a second beat that convey vibe without spoilers the concept. The Halloween runway allows Universal to lead pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then work the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček directs, with Souheila Yacoub top-lining. The franchise has long shown that a gritty, hands-on effects strategy can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Expect a viscera-heavy summer horror shock that maximizes offshore potential, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most foreign territories.

Sony’s horror bench is surprisingly deep. The studio mounts two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film bows August 21, 2026, holding a trusty supernatural brand in play while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has shifted dates on this title before, but the current plan anchors it in late summer, where Insidious has traditionally delivered.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is presenting as a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. see here With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a vital part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a well-defined brief to serve both diehards and general audiences. The fall slot creates runway for Sony to build artifacts around world-building, and creature builds, elements that can lift premium screens and fan events.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film follows the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by obsessive craft and dialect, this time exploring werewolf lore. Focus has already booked the frame for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can platform and widen if early reception is supportive.

Streamers and platform exclusives

Home-platform rhythms for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s releases land on copyright after a theater window then PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both premiere heat and platform bumps in the back half. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with cross-border buys and limited cinema engagements when the data backs it. Max and Hulu optimize their lanes in archive usage, using well-timed internal promotions, spooky hubs, and programmed rows to extend momentum on aggregate take. Netflix stays nimble about originals and festival snaps, timing horror entries near launch and making event-like arrivals with burst campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, operates a dual-phase of targeted cinema placements and speedy platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be critical for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating genre pipelines in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has demonstrated openness to pick up select projects with award winners or marquee packages, then give them a qualifying theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet awards eligibility or to spark social proof before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leans on the 20th Century Studios slate, a major factor for sustained usage when the genre conversation intensifies.

Boutique label prospects

Cineverse is engineering a 2026 runway with two brand plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The proposition is no-nonsense: the same mist-blanketed, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a genre cult touchstone, modernized for modern sound and cinematography. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a late-year slot, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has telegraphed a traditional cinema play for the title, an optimistic indicator for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors seeking R-rated counterprogramming in the September weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, marshalling the project through fall festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas window to broaden. That positioning has worked well for filmmaker-first 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 generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a set of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception drives. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that launches at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in parallel, using precision theatrical to seed evangelism that fuels their community.

Brands and originals

By skew, 2026 tips toward the IP side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The challenge, as ever, is brand wear. The preferred tactic is to position each entry as a new angle. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is hinting at a fresh ground-up build for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is driving a French-inflected take from a hot helmer. Those choices make a difference when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries add air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be branded as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, sets Rachel McAdams in a island-set survival premise with Raimi’s signature playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unyielding tone. Even when the title is not based on a property, the package is anchored enough to spark pre-sales and Thursday previews.

Comps from the last three years help explain the model. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that kept streaming intact did not hamper a day-date try from paying off when the brand was powerful. In 2024, director-craft horror exceeded expectations in premium screens. In 2025, a resurgence of a beloved infection saga made clear that global horror franchises can still feel reinvigorated when they pivot perspective and scale the storytelling. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which unfolds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to tie installments through relationships and themes and to leave creative active without dead zones.

Creative tendencies and craft

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate suggest a continued tilt toward tactile, location-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not repeat any recent iteration of the property, a stance that echoes the prosthetic-forward taste he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film wrapped production and is aimed at its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that emphasizes creep and texture rather than VFX blitz, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, have a peek at these guys meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval backdrop and archaic dialect, a combination that can make for immersive sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and craft features before rolling out a teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has performed for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is built for red-band excess, a signature of the series that travels well in red-band trailers and generates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 positions a self-aware reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will live or die on monster realization useful reference and design, which play well in convention activations and staggered reveals. Insidious tends to be a theatrical sound showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel irresistible. Look for trailers that spotlight pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that explode in larger rooms.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is stacked. 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 larger brand plays. The month caps with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is stiff, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure creates breathing room for each if word of mouth spreads.

Late winter and spring prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 bows February 27 with legacy momentum. In April, New Line’s The Mummy reawakens a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now hosts big openers. The 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 sharpens the contrast. 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 play next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have shuffled through big rooms.

End of summer through fall leans franchise. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil arrives after September 18, a transitional slot that still connects to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film secures October 23 and will absorb cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely driven by a tease-and-hold strategy and limited pre-release reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Holiday corridor prestige. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can compete at Christmas when packaged as director prestige horror. Focus has done this before, selective rollout, then using critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to stay top of mind into January. If the film resonates with critics, the studio can expand in the first week of 2027 while enjoying holiday hold and gift-card spend.

Title briefs within the narrative

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

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner mutates into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy opens the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult ascends in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively 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 face a unstable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished with U.S. theatrical locked. Positioning: gothic-game 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 tough boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the chain of command turns and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped. Positioning: star-forward survival chiller from a master.

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


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting premise that filters its scares through a child’s uncertain subjective view. Rating: not yet rated. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-supported and star-fronted supernatural suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers participating creatively. Logline: {A spoof revival that lampoons current genre trends and true crime fascinations. Rating: awaiting classification. 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 ignites, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: undetermined. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: intense red-band chapter tailored to PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: The Further stirs again, with a young family linked to ancient dread. Rating: TBD. Production: gearing up for summer filming with late-summer bow. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: forthcoming. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A from-scratch rebuild designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-forward bombast. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: IP-accurate revival with mainstream runway.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: TBD. Logline: carefully shrouded. Rating: forthcoming. Production: ongoing. Positioning: auteur event powered by teasers.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period language and primordial menace. Rating: to be announced. Production: building toward Christmas Day opening. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: schedule in motion, fall targeted.

Why the calendar favors 2026

Three execution-level forces inform this lineup. First, production that stalled or rearranged in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can patch those gaps promptly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects 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 launches. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine shareable moments from test screenings, select scare clips calibrated to Thursday preview timing, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it converts.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can take a weekend outright or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four genre tones will stack across five weekends, which lets WOM accrue cleanly. 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.

Business view: budgets, ratings, sleeper chase

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

The dark-horse hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to work those windows. January could easily deliver the first surprise 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. 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.

The moviegoer’s year in horror

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a array, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-hit supernatural combo 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 sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can escalate across the year, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors like the spacing. Horror delivers frequent Thursday-night spikes, efficient screen counts, 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 dimensionality, acoustics, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts rotate. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand power where it counts, distinct vision where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-arriving specialty entry join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, protect the mystery, and let the chills sell the seats.