Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed awakens primeval malevolence, a hair raising feature, launching October 2025 across top streaming platforms

An frightening otherworldly scare-fest from creator / visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, triggering an archaic entity when foreigners become tools in a supernatural contest. Releasing this October 2nd, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google’s digital store, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – gear up for *Young & Cursed*, a disturbing saga of continuance and archaic horror that will revolutionize the horror genre this cool-weather season. Realized by rising imaginative director Andrew Chiaramonte, this claustrophobic and immersive cinema piece follows five young adults who are stirred imprisoned in a unreachable hideaway under the sinister grip of Kyra, a mysterious girl consumed by a prehistoric biblical force. Get ready to be shaken by a cinematic outing that merges bone-deep fear with legendary tales, debuting on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Diabolic occupation has been a time-honored foundation in the silver screen. In *Young & Cursed*, that formula is redefined when the demons no longer form beyond the self, but rather deep within. This echoes the most terrifying layer of the players. The result is a enthralling internal warfare where the intensity becomes a intense struggle between moral forces.


In a abandoned wild, five adults find themselves caught under the sinister presence and haunting of a unidentified figure. As the youths becomes powerless to oppose her rule, isolated and attacked by unknowns unfathomable, they are obligated to wrestle with their raw vulnerabilities while the moments mercilessly draws closer toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, paranoia mounts and teams collapse, pressuring each survivor to examine their values and the integrity of conscious will itself. The consequences escalate with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that connects unearthly horror with inner turmoil.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my vision was to explore basic terror, an darkness that predates humanity, working through human fragility, and highlighting a force that dismantles free will when autonomy is removed.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Transforming into Kyra meant evoking something far beyond human desperation. She is oblivious until the spirit seizes her, and that shift is haunting because it is so personal.”

Release & Availability

*Young & Cursed* will be offered for worldwide release beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home—providing users no matter where they are can enjoy this spine-tingling premiere.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just unveiled a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, up to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has pulled in over a huge fan reaction.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be released internationally, making the film to a worldwide audience.


Make sure to see this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to acknowledge these haunting secrets about inner darkness.


For teasers, on-set glimpses, and updates from the story's source, follow @YACMovie across online outlets and visit the official movie site.





Current horror’s watershed moment: 2025 across markets U.S. calendar fuses archetypal-possession themes, underground frights, and franchise surges

Spanning fight-to-live nightmare stories infused with scriptural legend and stretching into series comebacks as well as pointed art-house angles, 2025 is coalescing into horror’s most layered along with tactically planned year in ten years.

The 2025 horror calendar is more than crowded, it is calculated. studio majors set cornerstones with familiar IP, in parallel digital services saturate the fall with discovery plays set against old-world menace. In the indie lane, festival-forward creators is drafting behind the backdraft of a record-setting 2024 festival season. Since Halloween is the prized date, the non-October slots are tuned with exactness. The early fall corridor has become the proving ground, notably this year, the genre is also staking January, spring, and mid-summer. Horror fans are craving, studios are surgical, as a result 2025 may end up the most intentional cycle yet.

Major Studio Plans with Mini-Major Flex: Prestige fear returns

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 set the stage for reinvention, 2025 doubles down.

Universal fires the first shot with a big gambit: a reimagined Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, in a modern-day environment. Guided by Leigh Whannell and toplined by 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. set for mid January, it backs a move to shape winter into a prestige corridor, not a discard corridor.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Steered by Eli Craig fronted by Katie Douglas with Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. First wave buzz indicates sharp teeth.

As summer wanes, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Farmiga and Wilson return as the Warrens, the film signals catharsis as it engages a widely cited real case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves is rumored to steer toward a somber, reflective register for the close. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 slots behind. From early summer to October, a strong signal. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as text, and eerie supernatural logic. This time the stakes climb, with a deeper exploration into the “grabber” mythology and how grief haunts generations.

Completing the calendar is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The second outing goes deeper into backstory, builds out the animatronic fear crew, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It posts in December, holding the cold season’s end.

Streaming Originals: Economy, maximum dread

While cinemas swing on series strength, streamers are swinging risk forward, and returns look strong.

One standout ambitious title is Weapons, a cold-case linked horror tapestry that weaves together three timelines connected by a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with Josh Brolin opposite Julia Garner, the film fuses dread with dramatic heft. Rolling out in theaters late summer before fall platform release, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a close quarters body horror study with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Trapped in a far off rental as a holiday fractures, the film explores what happens when love, envy, and self hatred merge into physical decay. 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.

Then there is Sinners, a thirties era vampire folk parable featuring Michael B. Jordan. Rendered in sepia depth and layered biblical metaphor, it recalls There Will Be Blood spliced to Let the Right One In. The movie studies American religious trauma through the supernatural lens. Early test screenings have marked it as one of the year’s most talked about streaming debuts.

More streamer bound indies stand by in the shadows: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Possession, Deeper Than Ever: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed operates as a rare duality, minimal in staging, maximal in myth. Written and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the release shadows five strangers waking in a hidden woods cabin, bound to Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When darkness comes, Kyra’s power swells, a penetrating force tapping their private fears, soft spots, and remorse.

The dread here runs psychological, charged by primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this film taps something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. 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.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It is a smart play. No bloated mythology. No legacy baggage. Pure psyche terror, contained and taut, sized for the binge then exhale flow of digital viewers. In a year crowded with spectacle, Young & Cursed may stand out by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Launchpads, Market Engines

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest fields a robust horror set this year. Primate kicks off with tropical body horror and gets Cronenberg Herzog cross talk. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. That film, an A24 backed satire of toxic fandom inside a horror convention lockdown, looks poised to break out.

SXSW bowed Clown in a Cornfield while feeding deal chatter for microbudget haunts. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Those badges act as campaign openers, not end caps.

Legacy Brands: Returns, Restarts, and Fresh Angles

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen returns in July, reviving the 90s franchise with new lead and retro color. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 returns in late June, set to enlarge techno horror mythology with fresh faces and AI bred menaces. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

The Long Walk, from an early and searing Stephen King work, is inbound, guided by Francis Lawrence, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. If sold right, it could sit as The Hunger Games for adult horror fans.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Signals and Trends

Mythic lanes mainstream
From Lilith in Young & Cursed to Aztec curses in Whistle, horror is turning to ancient texts and symbols. This trend avoids nostalgia, reclaiming pre Christian archetypes. Horror reaches past fear, it states evil is old.

Body horror comes roaring back
Pieces such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper bring it back to flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation symbolize heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming originals get teeth
Churn filler is losing ground on platforms. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival heat turns into leverage
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theaters are a trust fall
Theater slots go to likely overachievers or franchise starters. Everything else is PVOD or hybrid. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

The Road Ahead: Autumn density and winter pivot

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies such as Bone Lake and Keeper will tussle for space. Watch for one or more of these to pivot into early 2026 or shift platforms.

With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December, a stealth streamer drop might pop near year end. Because major titles skew dark and mythic, a late creature feature or exorcism could slide in.

The key is connecting variety to fragmentation, not betting on one piece. The mission is not a new Get Out, it is sustained horror beyond tickets.



The coming 2026 terror slate: brand plays, fresh concepts, in tandem with A packed Calendar Built For nightmares

Dek: The upcoming horror calendar clusters at the outset with a January logjam, after that runs through the summer months, and pushing into the winter holidays, mixing name recognition, fresh ideas, and calculated counterprogramming. Studios and streamers are embracing mid-range economics, exclusive theatrical windows first, and social-fueled campaigns that turn these releases into four-quadrant talking points.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

The field has established itself as the steady lever in studio lineups, a vertical that can accelerate when it resonates and still buffer the floor when it does not. After 2023 proved to decision-makers that disciplined-budget scare machines can lead audience talk, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and stealth successes. The head of steam moved into 2025, where returns and elevated films highlighted there is capacity for a variety of tones, from legacy continuations to non-IP projects that perform internationally. The combined impact for the 2026 slate is a schedule that presents tight coordination across distributors, with planned clusters, a blend of familiar brands and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on exclusive windows that power the aftermarket on premium digital rental and home platforms.

Marketers add the genre now serves as a wildcard on the rollout map. Horror can roll out on many corridors, offer a clear pitch for previews and vertical videos, and overperform with audiences that appear on opening previews and continue through the subsequent weekend if the feature satisfies. Exiting a strike-delayed pipeline, the 2026 configuration exhibits assurance in that playbook. The calendar starts with a crowded January stretch, then turns to spring and early summer for balance, while holding room for a fall run that connects to All Hallows period and past the holiday. The grid also reflects the continuing integration of specialty arms and platforms that can build gradually, ignite recommendations, and scale up at the inflection point.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. Major shops are not just making another return. They are setting up lore continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that indicates a recalibrated tone or a star attachment that bridges a next film to a first wave. At the parallel to that, the filmmakers behind the most buzzed-about originals are celebrating material texture, in-camera effects and concrete locations. That mix produces 2026 a smart balance of recognition and unexpected turns, which is what works overseas.

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

Paramount defines the early cadence with two big-ticket titles that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the helm and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a passing of the torch and a heritage-centered character-first story. The shoot is ongoing in Atlanta, and the authorial approach hints at a memory-charged treatment without going over the last two entries’ Carpenter-sisters arc. Anticipate a campaign anchored in classic imagery, initial cast looks, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s cinema pipeline.

Paramount also revives a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved creatively for the first time since the early 2000s, a centerpiece the campaign will emphasize. As a summer alternative, this one will go after four-quadrant chatter through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format making room for quick reframes to whatever defines horror talk that spring.

Universal has three unique bets. SOULM8TE rolls out January 9, 2026, a tech-horror spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is simple, heartbroken, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an machine companion that grows into a murderous partner. The date lines it up at the front of a busy month, with the Universal machine likely to replay uncanny live moments and short-form creative that interlaces companionship and chill.

On May 8, 2026, the studio sets an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely rumored as the feature developed under development titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official release calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which permits a branding reveal to become an event moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing stakes a claim in early May while larger tentpoles crowd different corridors.

Filling out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film takes October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s pictures are branded as director events, with a concept-forward tease and a later trailer push that shape mood without giving away the concept. The Halloween runway lets the studio to fill pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, joins with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub headlining. The franchise has established that a gnarly, physical-effects centered method can feel prestige on a middle budget. Look for a red-band summer horror charge that emphasizes worldwide reach, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most world markets.

Sony’s horror bench is particularly deep. The studio places two series moves in the back half. An untitled Insidious film debuts August 21, 2026, continuing a reliable supernatural brand on the grid while the spin-off branch advances. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan sets it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil reboots in what the studio is describing as a reimagined restart for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and new audiences. The fall slot hands Sony window to build campaign pieces around mythos, and practical creature work, elements that can stoke PLF interest and fandom activation.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, pins a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in historical precision and period speech, this time steeped in lycan lore. Focus Features has already announced the holiday for a holiday release, a strong signal in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

How the platforms plan to play it

Platform plans for 2026 run on familiar rails. Universal’s horror titles move to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a tiered path that boosts both initial urgency and sign-up momentum in the back half. Prime Video pairs licensed titles with worldwide entries and small theatrical windows when the data points to it. Max and Hulu play their strengths in catalog discovery, using seasonal hubs, fright rows, and collection rows to lengthen the tail on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about Netflix originals and festival wins, securing horror entries on shorter runways and eventizing debuts with short runway campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a paired of selective theatrical runs and rapid platforming that drives paid trials from buzz. That will prove important for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before pivoting to direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ continues to weigh horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has shown a willingness to secure select projects with name filmmakers or headline-cast packages, then give them a small theatrical footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet qualification bars or to show bona fides before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for retention when the genre conversation ramps.

Indie and specialty outlook

Cineverse is curating a 2026 arc with two IP plays. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The offer is no-nonsense: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a beloved cult piece, upgraded for modern mix and image. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. Cineverse has telegraphed a wide-to-platform plan for the title, an healthy marker for fans of the uncompromising series and for exhibitors in need of adult counterprogramming in the autumn weeks.

Focus will operate the filmmaker lane with Werwulf, managing the title through festivals in the fall if the cut is ready, then working the year-end corridor to move out. That positioning has helped for arthouse horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not dated many 2026 horror titles in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines generally solidify after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A fair assumption is a handful of late-summer and fall platformers that can go wider if reception supports. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that runs at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work jointly, using limited theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their audience.

Known brands versus new stories

By tilt, the 2026 slate tips toward the brand side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all draw on name recognition. The caveat, as ever, is fatigue. The go-to fix is to present each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is leading with core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is maximizing a French-accented approach from a hot helmer. Those choices matter when the audience has so many options and social sentiment changes rapidly.

Originals and auteur plays bring the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with Raimi’s playful menace. SOULM8TE offers a focused, eerie tech hook. Werwulf anchors in period detail and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on familiar IP, the cast-creatives package is recognizable enough to build pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Past-three-year patterns make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that honored streaming windows did not foreclose a day-date try from working when the brand was potent. In 2024, filmmaker-craft-led horror exceeded expectations in PLF. In 2025, a reawakened chapter of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel revitalized when they shift POV and widen scale. 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 double feature plan, with chapters produced back-to-back, allows marketing to cross-link entries through protagonists and motifs and to keep assets alive without hiatuses.

Technique and craft currents

The filmmaking conversations behind the year’s horror telegraph a continued bias toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not follow any recent iteration of the property, a stance that squares with the physical-effects bias he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film finished principal and is headed for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that leans on tone and tension rather than fireworks, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing cost management.

Robert check over here Eggers, meanwhile, has framed Werwulf as the most forbidding project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval setting and medieval diction, a combination that can make for 3D sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely seed this aesthetic in long-lead press and department features before rolling out a initial teaser that leans on mood over plot, a move that has played for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is engineered for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and sparks shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 sets up a meta-horror reset that returns to the core star. Resident Evil will succeed or falter on monster work and world-building, which play well in fan conventions and curated leaks. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the auditorium case feel necessary. Look for trailers that foreground surgical sound design, deep-bass stingers, and dropouts that benefit on big speakers.

Release calendar overview

January is crowded. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a somber counterpoint amid big-brand pushes. The month concludes 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 formidable, but the variety of tones creates a lane for each, and the five-week structure offers clean runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring set up the summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now backs 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 splits the lanes. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comic-leaning and wide, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 supplies red-band intensity. The counterprogramming logic is solid. The spoof can succeed next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest serves older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Late-season stretch leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously thrived. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a late-September window that still links to Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film holds October 23 and will engross cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a peekaboo tease plan and limited pre-release reveals that lean on concept not plot.

Holiday prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a line in sand that genre can play the holidays when packaged as prestige-leaning horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then capitalizing on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film lands critically, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production carries on. Logline: Sidney returns to meet a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: origin-forward with a contemporary twist.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A sorrowing man’s AI companion becomes something seductively lethal. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal is complete for an early-year bow. Positioning: AI chiller with a human heart.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Young & Cursed 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 hardens in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Shot sequentially with the first film. Positioning: continuation of a revived prestige zombie saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man journeys back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to confront a shimmering reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: aura-driven 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 hard-edged boss fight to survive on a far-flung island as the power balance of power upends and paranoia spreads. Rating: TBA. Production: Finished. Positioning: marquee survival piece 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 from-today rework that returns the monster to horror, rooted in Cronin’s physical craft and creeping dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. 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 household haunting premise that channels the fear through a youth’s volatile subjective view. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: wrapped. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

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 spoof revival that teases today’s horror trends and true-crime obsessions. Rating: pending. Production: filming slated for fall 2025. Positioning: mainstream summer comedy-horror.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites surges, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: forthcoming. Production: shooting in New Zealand. Positioning: uncompromising R installment meant for big rooms.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be announced in marketing. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a new clan lashed to older hauntings. Rating: TBD. Production: slated for summer production leading to late-summer release. Positioning: steady supernatural brand in a historically strong slot.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: A restart designed to reframe the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward survival-driven horror over action pyrotechnics. Rating: not yet rated. Production: advancing in development with date locked. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October his comment is here 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: pending. Logline: intentionally withheld. Rating: TBD. Production: advancing. 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 period-precise speech and raw menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. 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 cinema-first path before platforming. Status: timing fluid, autumn anticipated.

Why the moment is 2026

Three hands-on forces define this lineup. First, production that decelerated or shifted in 2024 needed spacing on the calendar. Horror can bridge those gaps quickly because scripts often need fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI sequences, and shorter timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently outpaced straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, social buzz converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will activate bite-size scare clips from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips launched on Thursday previews, and experiential pop-ups that feed creator content. It is a repeatable playbook because it works.

There is also the slotting calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, making room for genre entries that can dominate a weekend or act as the older-tilt option. January is the prime example. Four horror lanes will coexist across five weekends, which helps each film cultivate buzz on its own. Summer provides the other window. The send-up tracks alongside early family and action traffic, then the hard-R entry can leverage a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the optimal band. Most of the films above will track under the $40–$50 million range, 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 surprise-hit pursuit 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 exploit those windows. January could easily deliver the first quiet 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 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.

Audience cadence through 2026

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers rhythm and variety. January is a sampler, February delivers a legacy slasher, April restores a Universal monster, May and June provide a two-beat supernatural run for date nights and group outings, July goes red-band, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can build month to month, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors favor the spacing. Horror delivers steady Thursday pops, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can command PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing detail, aural design, and cinematography that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026, Ready To Roar

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is in place. There is franchise muscle where it helps, original 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 closing-window arthouse pickup join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, lock the reveals, and let the scares sell the seats.